C2 and Lawfare

No commander would deny that military actions are governed by both behaviours, policy and law yet there is considerably more emphasis placed in rules of engagement, release criteria, and national interpretations of self defence in the training and education of military officers than in the legal principles that sits behind them. Those principles were created by fighters who had experienced the cauldon of combat across the millenia and determined that there were some basic ideas about the conduct of war, the treatment of prisoners and civilians that needed to be codified. Whether the Code of Hummurari in 1750BCE, how guidance was drawn from the Book of Deuteronomy, the ethics of the 7th Century caliph of Abu Bakr, or the writings of Augustine of Hippo, the laws of war have a rather significant history associated to them.

Today, governed still by international law above all else, commanders cannot get away from the complexities of the law on operations and - with increasing scrutiny on military action after the fact – the role of the legal advisor in a headquarters has rarely been more important. But the LEGAD occupies an unusual and difficult position: holding the moral, ethical, and legal boundaries in focus in the midst of hard – perhaps even existential - fighting requires tenacity, honesty, and considerable courage.

Brigadier Lisa Ferris, currently the New Zealand Defence Force's attache to the UK and previously head of the NZDF legal servcies team, explains more.

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