During 1987–1993, scholarship coalesced around a universal framework for accountability in international humanitarian law. The Geneva Conventions were treated as customary law extending protection beyond treaty parties, while jus cogens reinforced prohibitions on core crimes and elevated war crimes norms beyond consent-based regimes. Proportionality emerged as a central constraint on both jus ad bellum and jus in bello, and rape was explicitly recognized as a war crime, advancing gender-crime jurisprudence.