The Bulletin of National Defence University of Ukraine

The article “Means of ‘hybrid wars’: lawfare” analyzes such a form of representing the lack of neutrality of law as “lawfare” based on a review of contemporary Western literature. In the section “Defining the main problem”, it is noted that an important component of modern “hybrid wars” is the abuse of legal norms; however, the extent of such abuses and the ways to overcome them remain undefined. In the section “Analysis of recent publications”, theoretical works of Western researchers on lawfare are indicated, as well as a case study examining the problem of legal regulation of military tactics. The main purpose of the article is to analyze the key aspects of the emergence of lawfare, its definition, and its complexity in the context of modern hybrid wars from a non-legal perspective. In the section “Presentation of the main material”, the challenges of complying with the Geneva Convention, which defines the status of combatants and non-combatants, are considered through the case of Marcus Luttrell, who described his experience in Operation “Red Wings” in eastern Afghanistan in the summer of 2005. The author highlights how “manipulation of legal norms in favor of the enemy” occurs on the battlefield. Modern researchers emphasize that lawfare can be an attribute not only of the tactical level of armed conflict but also of the strategic one, turning into a powerful tool of modern “hybrid wars.” The main difficulty characterizing this problem lies in the fundamental impossibility of solving it within the framework of legal theory. The Russian-Ukrainian war has once again highlighted a problem that has always been relevant for modern Western countries – how to resolve the contradiction between urgent military tactical requirements and international law? In the conclusions, the article emphasizes the complexity and importance of studying the problem of lawfare, as well as the reasons for the lack of its solution

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