Beijing Law Review, 2018, 9, 294-307 http://www.scirp.org/journal/blr ISSN Online: 2159-4635 ISSN Print: 2159-4627 DOI: 10.4236/blr.2018.92019 Jun. 21, 2018 294 Beijing Law Review The Historical Evolution of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) from Earliest Societies to Modern Age Mohammad Saidul Islam Department of Law International Islamic University, Chittagong, Bangladesh Abstract International humanitarian law earlier known as the law of war is applied in the armed conflict to protect those who don`t take part in the hostilities or no longer taking part in the hostilities. Even in absence of any international document the earliest societies or communities would have followed some rules of war during conflict either as per the instructions of the community leader or customs or religions. The paper addresses the earlier scattered pro- visions of the law of war (LOW) or international humanitarian law (IHL) in various religious books, customs and practices. It then turns to the develop- ment of IHL by the codification of the rules of war in various international and national documents. This article also focuses on the significant devel- opment of IHL by adopting the four Geneva conventions (GCs) and its three additional protocols (AP) and most importantly progress and promo- tion of IHL by incorporating the laws of armed conflict in the national leg- islations. Keywords Development, IHL, Evolution, Geneva, National Legislation 1. Introduction The rules of conflict or fight, although, first documented in 1863 after the war of Solferino, it was slightly existed and practiced from the beginning of human be- ing. The earliest societies, the Papua, the Sumerians, Babylon, Persians, the Greek, and the Roman, in all societies had some rules of fighting and these rules were strictly followed by people. Every religion namely, Islam, Christian, Jesus, Hindu and Buddhist contains a handful of provisions on the law of armed con- How to cite this paper: Islam, M. S. (2018). The Historical Evolution of Inter- national Humanitarian Law (IHL) from Earliest Societies to Modern Age. Beijing Law Review, 9, 294-307. https://doi.org/10.4236/blr.2018.92019 Received: Apr. 22, 2018 Accepted: June 18, 2018 Published: June 21, 2018 Copyright © 2018 by author and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access