Bill Boothby reviews “Air Warfare and International Humanitarian Law” by Mateusz Piatkowski
Today, expert Lawfire®contributor Bill Boothby treats us to his review of Dr. Mateusz Piatkowski’s new book Air Warfare and International Law. Interestingly, it is published Open Access under Creative Commons in English translation from the original monograph published in Polish. It is available for download for free at https://www.press.uni.lodz.pl/index.php/wul/en/catalog/view/1504/9067/5903
Here’s Bill:
“Air Warfare and International Humanitarian Law”: A Review
by William H Boothby
Mateusz Piatkowski has produced a monumental text spanning 850 pages, including indices, that deserves the widest attention. The book adopts a logical framework and addresses each element in commendable detail. Propositions are thoroughly researched, references are carefully set forth, and all relevant topics are examined with real thoroughness. The result is a highly authoritative and comprehensive treatment of this most important subject.
The narrative starts with a discussion of the historical development of aviation and its military application from the earliest beginnings in the 18th century and incorporates a useful assessment of the evolution of air warfare doctrine.
This emerging picture of progress in technology and in associated doctrine and practice in diverse conflicts provides a sound foundation for the explanations of law that are to follow. The depth of research underlying this volume is demonstrated by the scope of the footnoted references, such that this book will provide a most useful source of information for future researchers.
It should be borne in mind that this is a translation of the Polish original, so some care is required – for example the reference on page 86 to the ‘exclusive combat zone’ should perhaps be a reference to the Total Exclusion Zone established by the United Kingdom around the Falkland Islands/Malvinas. Equally, perhaps the discussion of the Iraq War coalition at the top of page 88 should acknowledge the involvement of a larger number of States in the coalition.
The basing of the legal discussion in a careful and thorough assessment of state practice over many decades is to be applauded. Indeed, it is the very approach that the experienced commentator in this field, William Hays Parks, advocated and would most certainly have applauded.
Chapter I deals with the phenomenon of air warfare and its evolution from the earliest beginnings to more recent capabilities. Chapter II addresses the sources of the law of air warfare and Chapter III goes on to look at its material scope, grounding that discussion in examples taken from a selection of relevant armed conflicts.
The development of the law of air warfare, which is traced from the earliest texts in the 1870s through to modern times, is the subject of Chapter IV. Chapter V is an extensive review of the state of the law following the preparation by a panel of jurists of the Draft Hague Rules of Aerial Warfare. Again adopting a sequential approach, the Chapter also considers how the law of air warfare developed respectively during the period between the World Wars, during World War II and post-war until the early 1970s.
The book recognizes the importance of Additional Protocol I and sensibly devotes Chapter VI to a comprehensive assessment of the impact of that Treaty on air warfare law, addressing inter alia the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks, the proportionality rule, military objectives, specific protections and the law as to precautions.
Specific issues that are of particular relevance in air operations are handled in Chapter VII. These include perfidy, ruses and camouflage, military aircraft markings, the application of weapons law to air operations and some relevant provisions of international aviation law.
In Chapter VIII the law of neutrality is addressed succinctly while in Chapter IX the consideration of air warfare issues by numerous international courts, commissions, and in international reports is reviewed. In Chapter X the vexed issues arising from unmanned operations, including those that employ autonomy, are explained after which the author offers some conclusions.
In a sense, since its very inception, air warfare has been at the cutting edge of technology, and the rate of that technological advance has been accelerated by the pressing demands arising from ongoing hostilities. The need to match and then exceed the capabilities of the enemy in the air is one of the defining features of modern warfare. That is a process that continues.
This book is undoubtedly a most impressive treatment of air warfare and its legal dimension, but the challenge now will be to keep the book current, while securing for it the widest readership possible. Its encyclopaedic handling of the subject and the depth of the research and referenced materials ensure its authority.
Going forward, developments such as the employment of artificial intelligence in the selection of targets and the associated criticisms of e.g. the Lavender system will perhaps require greater attention.
Likewise, the experience in the Russia v Ukraine War with the use of kamikaze, or suicide, drones, and the use of diverse technologies to counter them will need some consideration, as will the legal implications of the sheer speed with which new drone technologies are introduced and with which new means of countering them need to be developed.
So this would seem to be a text which will require regular updating as technological advances continue to present new challenges, and as state practice evolves. The iconic myth about the painting of the Forth Road Bridge was that when the painting was completed the painters simply returned to the other end of the bridge and continued the same work. It seems likely that a subject as dynamic as air warfare and its associated law will require similar revisions and additions on a relatively continuous basis.
As I see it, this is a most impressive and meritorious work that richly deserves to be kept up to date. I congratulate the author on his achievement.
About the Author:
Air Commodore Bill Boothby retired as Deputy Director of Royal Air Force Legal Services in July 2011. He took a Doctorate at the Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) in Germany and has published books, inter alia, on Weapons Law, Targeting Law, the law relating to conflict and on new and emerging technologies.
More recently with Prof Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, he published a Commentary on the US DoD Law of War Manual and ‘Nuclear Weapons Law’, both with CUP. His book on AI Warfare and the Law was published by USNWC in January 2024 and a revised book on Nuclear Weapons Law was published in May 2025.
He has been a member of Groups of Experts that addressed Direct Participation in Hostilities and that produced the HPCR Manual of the Law of Air and Missile Warfare, the 2013 Tallinn Manual on the Law of Cyber Warfare and the Leuven Manual on Peace Operations Law. He is Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg and an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.
The views expressed by guest authors do not necessarily reflect my views or those of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, or Duke University. See also here.
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