The first modern codification of the Law of War: Francis Lieber and General Orders No. 100

1963 ◽  
Vol 3 (25) ◽  
pp. 171-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. R. Baxter
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Geneva Convention ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Hague ◽  
The Law ◽  
One Year

Mr. Henri Coursier, of the Legal Department of the ICRC, published some time ago a study on “Francis Lieber and the Laws of War” in the International Review, together with a French translation of Orders No. 100 relative to the behaviour of the United States Armies in the field (the famous “Lieber Laws”), the object of which was to have the principles of international law applied during the American civil war (1861–1865). These orders which were immediately recognized and appreciated by the principal lawyers of the time, had a great influence on the future of the law of nations, since it can be said that the Hague Regulations, which sprang from the 1899 and 1907 Peace Conferences, were very largely inspired by them, and several provisions of the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, stem from the same source. It was to Lieber that the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, appealed to establish this Code which was promulgated in 1863, thus preceding by one year the First Geneva Convention.

Diálogos militares by Diego García de Palacio: The first American work on the law of nations

1992 ◽  
Vol 32 (290) ◽  
pp. 446-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Valencia Villa
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
The United States ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
Simon Bolivar ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Government

Over the years the Americas have made significant contributions to the development of international humanitarian law. These include three nineteenth-century texts which constitute the earliest modern foundations of the law of armed conflict. The first is a treaty, signed on 26 November 1820 by the liberator Simón Bolívar and the peacemaker Pablo Morillo, which applied the rules of international conflict to a civil war. The second is a Spanish-American work entitled Principios de Derecho de Genres (Principles of the Law of Nations), which was published in 1832 by Andrés Bello. This work dealt systematically with the various aspects and consequences of war. The third is a legal instrument, signed on 24 April 1863 by United States President Abraham Lincoln, which codified the first body of law on internal conflict under the heading “Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field” (General Orders No. 100). This instrument, known as the Lieber Code, was adopted as the new code of conduct for the armies of the Union during the American Civil War.

Emer de Vattel on the Society of Nations and the Political System of Europe

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Zurbuchen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political System ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Founding Father ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Modern Natural ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Law

This chapter aims to explain why considering Vattel as a founding father of positivism rests on a misunderstanding. Despite the continuous attention Vattel received in the scholarly literature as well as in the diplomatic and juridical practice, especially in the United States, his legacy remained highly contested ever since his treatise The Law of Nations was first published in 1758. One reason is its indebtedness to the modern natural law tradition but also to Vattel’s originality, mainly due to the significance he attributed to the sovereign state as a free and independent member of the society of nations. Vattel established many dualisms to develop his very broad notion of the law of nations: he applied the law of nations to the ‘political system’ of Europe, which he considered a kind of republic instituted for maintaining order and liberty and founded on the scheme of the balance of power.

Enemy Women and the Laws of War in the American Civil War

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 667-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie McCurry
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Civil War ◽  
Laws Of War ◽  
Total War ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Radical Revision

One of the most important legacies of the American Civil War, not just in the re-united States of America but also in the nineteenth and twentieth century world, were the new laws of war that the conflict introduced. “Lieber's Code,” named after the man who authored it for the Lincoln administration, was a set of instructions written and issued in April 1863 to govern the conduct of “the armies of the United States in the field.” It became a template for all subsequent codes, including the Hague and Geneva conventions. Widely understood as a radical revision of the laws of war and a complete break with the Enlightenment tradition, the code, like the war that gave rise to it, reflected the new post-Napoleonic age of “people's wars.” As such, it pointed forward, if not as the expression of the first total war, then at least as an expression of the first modern one, with all the blurring of boundaries that involved.

Incorporation of the Law of Nations During the American Revolution—The Case of the San Antonio

1977 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry J. Bourguignon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Law ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
Common Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Law ◽  
Anglo American

In an article published in this Journal in 1932, Professor Edwin Dickinson pointed out that the Supreme Court, in the first thirty years of its existence, dealt with 82 cases which raised questions of international law. The Court and counsel before it repeatedly cited the familiar writers on the law of nations: Grotius, Pufendorf, Bynkershoek, Burlamaqui, Rutherforth, and Vattel. As Dickinson pointed out, “It is an ancient doctrine of the Anglo-American common law that the law of nations is incorporated in and in some sense forms part of the national law.” Largely through decisions based on the principles expressed by the classical writers, the law of nations was early incorporated as part of the law of the United States.

The Arctic and Antarctic Regions and the Law of Nations

1910 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Willing Balch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
North Pole ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Law

The announcement of the discovery of the North Pole raised in several quarters, among others the British and the Canadian Parliaments, the question whether the act of discovery gave to the United States any right of possession over the North Pole.In searching for the answer to this question, it is necessary to ascertain the rules of the Law of Nations that govern analogous cases.

Commission of Jurists to Consider and Report Upon the Revision of the Rules of Warfare, General Report.

1938 ◽  
Vol 32 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-56
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Law ◽  
British Empire ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Plenary Session ◽  
The United States ◽  
New Methods ◽  
General Report ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Hague

The Conference on the Limitation of Armament at Washington adopted at its sixth plenary session on the 4th February, 1922, a resolution for the appointment of a Commission representing the United States of America, the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan to consider the following questions:(a) Do existing rules of international law adequately cover new methods of attack or defence resulting from the introduction or development, since The Hague Conference of 1907, of new agencies of warfare?(b) If not so, what changes in the existing rules ought to be adopted in consequence thereof as a part of the law of nations?

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