Extracting Natural Resources in Occupied Territories – the Conjunction between Jus in Bello, Jus ad Bellum and Human Rights Law

This chapter examines the relationship among jus in bello, jus ad bellum and international human rights law in the context of the exploitation of natural resources in territories under belligerent occupation. The most explicit legal regulations of the exploitation of natural resources in occupied territories are contained in the body of international law commonly known as jus in bello, more specifically, the regulations annexed to the Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land. The exploitation of public land itself, as a type of natural resources whose nature differs from that of underground minerals in that it cannot be ‘exhausted’ in the same sense, poses a different set of questions. The exploitation of natural resources in occupied territories is an activity regulated by, apart from international human rights law, other prominent bodies of international law, namely jus in bello and jus ad bellum.