The Handbook of the Law of Visiting Forces

International efforts to implement and develop military partnership programmes have stressed the need to elaborate status provisions for military and civilian personnel of foreign armed forces in a receiving State. This handbook evaluates existing experience in state practice.

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International efforts to implement and further develop military partnership programs have stressed the need to elaborate clear status provisions for military and civilian personnel of foreign armed forces in a receiving State. This handbook evaluates existing experience in State practice and describes options for further legal development. It offers a perception of the immunity of foreign armed forces based on historic developments and current treaties with a view
to the question whether rules of customary law are evolving in this respect. As a joint effort of internationally renowned experts the handbook provides an up-to-date commentary on applicable status law provisions as contained in the NATO Status of Forces Agreement of 1951 (NATO SOFA), which was
adapted more recently by the Partnership for Peace Status of Forces Agreement of 1995 (PfP SOFA), and the Paris Protocol of 1952 on NATO Military Headquarters. Case studies describe and evaluate specific practice in Germany, Japan, Korea, and Russia. The legal status of Red Cross delegates and headquarters agreements of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the status of UN Peacekeeping Forces and lessons learned in the former Yugoslavia are discussed in separate Chapters. The
concluding Chapter is devoted to the legal situation of visiting forces in an operational environment. Annexes provide the texts of key legal instruments of NATO and the United Nations, including the relevant arrangements for the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the
International Security Force in Kosovo (KFOR).