2009 was another fruitful year for the study of military law and the law of war. The International Society for Military Law and the Law of War held its 3-yearly international congress in Tunis about Practice and customary law in military operations, including peace support operations. It was the Society’s first congress on the African continent and thanks to the excellent reception and the very efficient work of the Tunisian organizers it was a very successful and well attended event. The texts of the congress will appear in 2010 in volume XVIII of the Recueils de la Société internationale de Droit militaire et de Droit de la Guerre.

In this Review, other topics are addressed. As usual, the contributions in this issue cover a variety of areas of law.

The first article deals with counter-terrorism in the air. While it discusses this challenge specifically as regards Germany, it will undoubtedly be of interest to lawyers and policy-makers outside that country too. The other two articles in this issue deal with criminal law and discipline: one criticising Belgian legislative interventions in this field and another addressing the role of military expertise in the prosecution of international crimes.

Under case-law and recent developments, we could not ignore the ICRC’s interpretive guidance on direct participation in hostilities and offer you A.P.V. Rogers’ reflections by on the subject. We also have a contribution on the Afghan/US case of Mohammad Jawad, written by three persons who are or were assigned to the Office of Military Commissions. From the European side, there is an annotation of the European Court of Human Rights’ Ely Ould Dah v. France case on prosecution abroad for acts of torture for which amnesty has been granted in the country in which they were committed. We are also pleased with a contribution on India’s new counter-terrorism laws.

Finally, as always, there is a series of book reviews and advertisements, including a discount offered by Oxford University Press.