Abstract

A methodological challenge confronting scholars of international law (IL) and international relations (IR) is operationalizing customary international law and state practice. This challenge is compounded when the subject has given rise to extensive and diverse primary source material, as is the case with international humanitarian law (IHL). This article develops a comprehensive research model that examines state practice of IHL as a decision-making process and employs diverse primary source material involving multiple levels and types of government agencies, officials, military practitioners and non-state actors. One of the advantages of the process perspective is that it helps to organize the large body of IHL primary source material that often goes overlooked and underutilized. This paper offers an alternative to prevailing methodologies and advances an approach that is both exploratory and structured. This ‘foundational’ perspective, I argue, can potentially serve as a bridge between the two disciplines and may provide the raw material for interdisciplinary dialogue and theory development. Finally, this article introduces the argument that both disciplines would benefit from including a historical perspective when writing on this controversial and emotive subject.

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