Règle correspondante
France
Practice Relating to Rule 141. Legal Advisers for Armed Forces
France’s LOAC Manual (2001) provides:
Legal advisers present in external areas of operations are required to assist the command in order to take into account these legal parameters [i.e. of the law of armed conflict] in the planning and conduct of operations.
France, Manuel de droit des conflits armés, Ministère de la Défense, Direction des Affaires Juridiques, Sous-Direction du droit international humanitaire et du droit européen, Bureau du droit des conflits armés, 2001, preamble, p. 7.
In 2008, in its fourth to sixth periodic reports to the Committee against Torture, France stated:
French military personnel … receive oral instructions in that regard [prohibition of torture, duty to disobey unlawful orders by a superior officer and obligations regarding the treatment of the wounded, ill and shipwrecked] in the theatre of operations, in particular through the presence of a legal adviser alongside the troop commander.
France, Fourth to sixth periodic reports to the Committee against Torture, 23 July 2009, UN Doc. CAT/C/FRA/4-6, submitted 30 June 2008, para. 172.
