IHL Does Not Authorise Detention in NIAC: A Reply to Sean Aughey and Aurel Sari

As noted by Sean and Aurel, the appeals proceedings in Serdar Mohammed v Ministry of Defence have sparked a renewed debate about detention in non-international armed conflict (NIAC). They have set out their arguments in an interesting article and in summary form in this post. I am not convinced by their arguments though, and despite the fact that certain provisions of the law of NIAC address the restriction of liberty or otherwise recognize that on occasion persons will be held by a party to the conflict, I do not see any authorisation for detention in the black-letter, or customary, law of NIAC. In this reply, I address some of the arguments made in favour of finding such authorisation and put forward an opposing view, in support of Leggatt J’s judgment.