William Boothby, Officer of the Royal Air Force Legal Branch
Bill Boothby has served for 27 years as an officer in the Royal Air Force Legal Branch. After service in the United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong, Cyprus and Croatia, he developed a professional interest in public international law in general, and the law relating to weaponry in particular. He developed and implemented the British system for the legal review of new weapons, and formed and led the team charged with conducting such reviews. He was a member of the British delegation to the Oslo Conference which, in 1997, negotiated the Ottawa Convention on Anti-Personnel Mines. He was also from 2000 until 2006 a member of the UK Delegation to numerous Conventional Weapons Convention Conferences in Geneva, including the conferences that culminated in the adoption of Protocol V to the Convention on Explosive Remnants of War. He undertook postgraduate study of the subject at Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) in Germany and presented his thesis, on which this book is based, in 2008.<
