In this chapter, I intend to briefly talk about the development of international humanitarian law, its role and its relation with other associated components of international law, such as jus ad bellum, human rights law and international criminal law. Thereafter, I seek to discuss the material, temporal, personal and geographical scope of application of the law in international as well as non-international armed conflicts mainly with the help of the legal provisions, decisions of international tribunals and the ICRC commentaries. The discussion is from a positivist perspective and tries to explain in detail the scope of the laws of armed conflict.