PROSECUTOR V. DUSKO TADIĆ (ICTY, 1995): REDEFINING THE SCOPE OF ARMED CONFLICT UNDER INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

The case of Prosecutor v. Dusko Tadić, decided by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), occupies a singular place in the development of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Beyond its significance as the Tribunal's first completed trial, the Appeals Chamber's 1995 jurisdictional decision fundamentally reshaped how international law understands the existence and classification of armed conflict, and in doing so, extended the reach of humanitarian protections in ways the drafters of the Geneva Conventions had not explicitly anticipated.