The Protection Of The Environment During Times Of Armed Conflict

War, by its nature, is always miserable and is always accompanied with great tragedy. The scope of the damage of war is not only limited to civilians, but could also be extended to the environment. These days, the environmental damage caused by wars and other types of armed conflicts have been more and more extensive and fatal. Not only are our own lives threatened by the environmental destruction caused by endless wars, the long-lasting nature of the environmental damage could influence future generations as well. To solve this problem, much sound research on this field has been conducted by some brilliant scholars, and many of them having unique and inspiring ideas concerning the topic. However, most of the works study the problem from a single approach, either from the international environmental law perspective, or from the international humanitarian/human rights perspective. To improve the studies concerning such field, this thesis aims to make the research on such topic within the whole framework of international law, systematically and thoroughly, to determine whether the protection of environment during times of armed conflict is sufficient or not.To reach the purpose of the thesis, this research has basically conducted with a traditional method, which including qualitative research and the case study method. There has been conducted the examination of the current legal framework based on a thorough research of the literature, such as government reports, institution reports, and academic reports. Besides the qualitative research method, case studies have also been included to examine the framework. In the thesis, to examine the current framework, three cases have been studied: the case of Vietnam War, the case of the Gulf War, and the case of Syrian Civil War.Through the qualitative research and case studies, the thesis identified loopholes existing with the current international legal framework. Both the protection measure and the enforcement system provided by such framework are insufficient to protect the environment during times of armed conflict. Possible solutions, including developing customary international law and letting international organizations play their roles in solving such problem, have been provided in the thesis as well.