Rules of the Laws of War
Land Warfare is the earliest form of war in human history, preceding to naval and air warfare. A set of rules and customs of the Law of War first established for land warfare later became the historical sources of the Law of War. There are two objectives
- PDF / 363,266 Bytes
- 49 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 77 Downloads / 187 Views
Rules of the Laws of War
Section 1 Laws of Land Warfare Land Warfare is the earliest form of war in human history, preceding to naval and air warfare. A set of rules and customs of the Law of War first established for land warfare later became the historical sources of the Law of War. The rules for land warfare always constitute the main part of both ancient and modern Laws of War. There are two objectives for land warfare, i.e. to defeat the enemy’s armed forces on land and occupy and manage the enemy’s territory.1 Accordingly, the rules in relation to land warfare, in content, consist of two parts: rules on military operations in land warfare and rules on the occupation and management of enemy’s territory. At present, the Law of War merely applicable to land warfare are very limited. Land warfare differs extensively from naval and air warfare in terms of pattern and form of warfare: First, due to different environments and circumstances, they use different methods and means of warfare; Secondly, international treaties and conventions governing the methods of warfare very rarely touch upon land, naval and air operations in the same time. Some conventions specially regulate naval operations whereas others are totally related to land warfare. Therefore, there are some rules concerning land warfare besides those basic rules of the Law of War commonly applicable to various forms of war including naval and air operations.
I. Rules of Military Operations in Land Warfare According to the Hague Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land of October 1907, the main contents of the laws of land warfare include: the eligibility of belligerents, prisoners of war, the sick and wounded, means of injuring the enemy, sieges, and bombardments, spies, flags of truce, military envoys 1 Lauterpacht
(1981).
© Law Press China 2019 J. Zhou, Fundamentals of Military Law, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6248-4_14
479
480
14 Rules of the Laws of War
of belligerent parties, capitulations, armistices, etc.2 This chapter will discuss the most important aspects of the war on land.
1. Combatants Must Be Legal Belligerents It is one of the basic principles of the Law of War to distinguish combatants from civilians. Once a war or armed conflict breaks out, it may only be fought between the combatants of the belligerent states and no weapons shall be used against the civilians living in those states. Combatants include both legal and illegal belligerents, the legal belligerents are protected by international law and should be treated as prisoners of war once fallen in the power of the hostile forces. Therefore, determining legitimate belligerents is the precondition for the application of the Law of War in land warfare. When a war or armed conflict breaks out among states, combatants must be belligerents in conformity with the provisions of the Law of War. On the one hand, states must abide by the provisions of the Law of War on the belligerents, avoid violating them, and prevent those who fail to conform to the prov
Data Loading...
