On Friday Professor Dr Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, the President of the of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War and Mr Alfons Vanheusden, the Assistant Secretary-General visited VU Faculty of Law. In the meeting and discussion, moderated by assoc. prof. Dr. Indrė Isokaitė – Valužė, Mr. A. Vanheusden presented activity and goals of this international association. Lina Urbaitė, the coordinator of international association NOHA (Network on Humanitarian Action) in Vilnius university, presented activity of this organization.
Prof. Dr Dr Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg talked about principles and norms of international law, which regulate a right to use armed force (jus ad bellum) and specify the rules during war time (jus in bello), as well he researched how Russia break the law in aggression against Ukraine. Professor reminded that conflict started with annexation of Crimea and he shared some special insights related to various international peace, security standards and aspects of international humanitarian law, among them – legal assessment of munitions and other help provided by countries, separate objects as targets (gates, electricity and etc.), status of the prisoners of war, underwater cables and security of pipelines, assessment of the announcement about enemy army location and other.
Prof. Dr Dr Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg received questions from students during meeting and after it, as well he emphasized the significance of the discussed topic: “I think it belongs to our core aims as a society to disseminate the law and of course we can not just keep silent only because it is ongoing conflict. So people must be made aware of the legal aspects of that conflict as well and not only political and a military aspects of it even though you can not always separate them“.
