"The project aims to investigate the relationship between armed conflicts and natural resources under international law. The research begins from the assumption that the linkage between natural resources and armed conflicts is evident and multi-faceted in nature. It can be analyzed from four different perspectives. In their relationship with armed conflicts natural resources can be: a) A concomitant cause; b) An object of the destruction brought about by the hostilities; c) An object of the exploitative activities during the occupation phase; d) A factor inducing a change in the political and economic order of the (occupied) territories and the States. After having broached some preliminary issues concerning the definition of natural resources, the project will engage with the international rules and principles that are applicable to the phenomena described above. The analysis will consider the rules regulating access to natural resources in the pre-conflict phase; the rules protecting the resources pending the conflict; the rules regulating the exploitation, the ownership, and the legal regime of the resources during and after the occupation. Different bodies of rules such as the law on the use of armed force, the law of war and the law of occupation, international environmental law, international commercial law, human rights law and permanent sovereignty over natural resources will be investigated. The ultimate objective of the project is to identify the antinomies and understand the interaction between the relevant legal regimes. Another objective lies in applying a coherent set of interpretive and systemic tools with the aim of reducing fragmentation and inconsistencies. The research method will make reference to the sources of international law and to the practice of the relevant subjects. The Israeli-Palestinian question, Iraq, East Timor, the RDC, Sierra Leone, and Western Sahara are among the case studies."