The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention A Commentary

In September 1997, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) was adopted by UN Member States at a dedicated diplomatic conference in Oslo. A disarmament treaty with clear and expansive humanitarian aims, the APMBC represented the culmination of many years of energetic campaigning. The Convention has since garnered the support of over 160 States Parties, yet some of its core provisions remain under scrutiny. Stuart Casey-Maslen's article-by-article commentary on the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention addresses international law and State practice on anti-personnel mines in the first twenty-five years of the lifetime of this disarmament treaty. It builds upon the author's first commentary on the Convention, published by Oxford University Press in 2003, and the revised edition issued in 2005. Whereas the two earlier editions focused on the negotiating history of the APMBC, this new edition provides insight into State and treaty practice up to now. It comprehensively details the use of anti-personnel mines through to the present day, the destruction of landmine stockpiles, and mine clearance in every affected nation. An authoritative and current commentary on the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, this new edition will be a crucial asset for diplomats, international lawyers, and academics seeking to interpret this instrumental piece of disarmament law.

Stuart Casey-Maslen is Honorary Professor of International Law at the University of Pretoria, where he teaches the law of armed conflict, international human rights law, international counterterrorism law, jus ad bellum, and disarmament law. He also has led postgraduate courses in public international law at Sciences Po in Paris and the Swedish Defence University in Stockholm. An academic and practitioner with thirty years' experience in disarmament, he holds a doctorate in international humanitarian law and master's degrees in international human rights law and forensic ballistics.