Symposium : The International Legal Fallout from Kosovo

• Fenrick, W.J.

Abstract

The 1999 NATO bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia relied upon modern precision weaponry and purported to pay due regard to contemporary legal standards, in particular to the requirement to limit incidental civilian casualties. There are no such things as error‐free wars or casualty‐free wars. It appears, however, that NATO classified a wider range of objects as military objectives than has traditionally been the case, in particular the RTS broadcasting station headquarters in Belgrade. It also appears that some earlier bombing campaigns (the 1972 ‘Linebacker 2’ campaign against North Vietnam which was conducted at the dawn of the era of precision weapons is an example) were conducted paying equal regard to the requirement to limit incidental civilian casualties.