On 16 December the National Assembly saw the presentation of the book Customary International Humanitarian Law: Rules, by Jean-Marie Henckaerts and Louise Doswald-Beck. The event was organised jointly by the European Integrations Committee and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The chairperson of the European Integrations Committee, Ksenija Milivojevic, and the deputy head of the ICRC Delegation, Peter Fluger, welcomed the attendees, and said that the implementation of tenets of customary international humanitarian law was important to the process of European integrations, as well as that the process involved not only harmonisation with EU regulations.
Dr Vesna Knezevic-Predic, of the Faculty of Political Sciences, explained that laws were not the only expression of national law, nor was international law based solely on international treaties. Customary international humanitarian law, based on tradition, is the source of obligations of all parties to a conflict, and also the source of sanctions for all such parties. Although customary law is unwritten, it is implemented, and international courts interpret the actual behaviour of countries – as well as whether they behaved so out of a belief that such actions were right, or out of political opportunism.
ICRC official Robert Young presented Customary International Humanitarian Law. He said that the sources of rules of international law were Article 38 of the Articles of Association of the International Court of Justice, international contract law, and customary international law. The book was the result of a serious study commissioned by the international community, and applies to both international and internal conflicts. The study showed that rules of customary law were much more widespread, and the normative framework more developed, than is shown by treaty ratification, as well as that many rules in these conflicts were the same or similar.

Dr Zoran Radivojevic, of the Nis Faculty of Law, explained rules on the manner of waging war from the aspect of customary law, and the prohibition of actions in contravention of the principles of soldierly honour.