Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:19:57.257Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - All’s Fair in Love and War or the Limits of the Limitations

Juridification of Warfare and Its Revocation by Military Necessity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2024

By
Miloš Vec
Edited by
Matt Killingsworth  and
Tim McCormack
Matt Killingsworth
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania
Tim McCormack
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania
Get access

Summary

Humanity and civility were established as new leading principles of international law during the last decades of the nineteenth century. But the restriction of war itself was a battlefield. Some authors conceptualised the restrictions on warfare explicitly as of a social custom quality or as ‘chivalric practices’ of ‘moral value only’. Probably the most fundamental attack on international law’s limits came from the idea of ‘military necessity’. It was limiting law’s limitations. And in its most radical variant, it was evoked not only in those cases which explicitly referred to it but in any regulation of warfare. This was a specific, particularly militaristic understanding of ‘necessity’, and its effect was unleashing: the laws of war would lose their binding force. Necessity could revocate any ties, be they moral or legal. Pre-1914 international law was in some areas pretty far away from humanisation, universalism, and also from positivism. It was relativising and legitimating excessive violence.

Keywords

legal pluralismjuridificationmultinormativitymilitary necessitylegal positivismde-juridificationlegal sourceslegal principlesinternational humanitarian lawlaw of warpeace
Type
Chapter
Information
Civility, Barbarism and the Evolution of International Humanitarian Law
Who do the Laws of War Protect?
 , pp. 34 - 60
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, A. (2015). A Short History of International Humanitarian Law. The European Journal of International Law, 26(1), 109–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balfour, S. (2001). Secret Wars in Forgotten Africa. Journal of Romance Studies, 1(3), 121–31.Google Scholar
von Bernhardi, F. (1914). Britain as Germany’s Vassal. Together with Kriegsbrauch – The Customs of War. Published by the German General Staff, Berlin, 1902, and Extracts from Regulations Adopted by the Hague Conference 1907 and Subscribed to by Germany, translated by Barker, J. Ellis, London: Wm. Wawson & Sons Ltd.Google Scholar
von Bernstorff, J. (2018). The Use of Force in International Law before World War I: On Imperial Ordering and Ontology of the Nation-State. The European Journal of International Law, 29(1), 233–60.Google Scholar
Bex, J. (1910). Essai sur l’évolution du droit des gens, Paris: Librarie des Sciences Politiques & Sociales.Google Scholar
Bluntschli, J. C. (1868). Das moderne Völkerrecht der civilisirten Staten als Rechtsbuch dargestellt, Nördlingen: C. H. Beck’sche Buchhandlung.Google Scholar
Brooks, R. (2016). How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything. Tales from the Pentagon, New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Cybichowski, S. (1912). Der große Generalstab und das Völkerrecht. In Cybichowski, S., ed., Studien zum internationalen Recht, Berlin: F. Vahlen, 5–8.Google Scholar
Dahn, F. (1884). Das Kriegsrecht. Für den Tornister deutscher Soldaten 1870. In Dahn, F., ed., Bausteine: gesammelte kleine Schriften; Reihe 5, Schicht 1: Völkerrechtliche und statsrechtliche Studien, Berlin: Janke, 1–44.Google Scholar
Diggelmann, O. (2017). Beyond the Myth of a Non-Relationship. International Law and World War I. Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d‘histoire du droit international, 19(1), 93–120.Google Scholar
Dülffer, J. (1978). Regeln gegen den Krieg? Die Haager Friedenskonferenzen von 1899 und 1907 in der internationalen Politik, Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein.Google Scholar
Endres, K. (1909). Die völkerrechtlichen Grundsätze der Kriegsführung zu Lande und zur See, Berlin: Decker.Google Scholar
Ferguson, A. (1792). Principles of Moral and Political Science; Being chiefly a Retrospect of Lectures delivered in the College of Edinburgh, Vol. II, Part II, Chap. IV, Sec. IV, Edinburgh: Creech & A. Strahan and T. Cadell.Google Scholar
Forst, R. (2013). Zum Begriff eines Rechtfertigungsnarrativs. In Fahrmeir, A., ed., Rechtfertigungsnarrative. Zur Begründung normativer Ordnung durch Erzählungen, Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, 11–28.Google Scholar
García-Salmones Rovira, M. (2013). The Project of Positivism in International Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gong, G. W. (1984). The Standard of ‘Civilization’ in International Society, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Grand état-major allemande. (1916). Les lois de la guerre continentale, translated to the French by Carpentier, Paul, Paris: Librairie Payot & Cie.Google Scholar
Großer Generalstab. Kriegsgeschichtliche Abteilung I, ed. (1902). Kriegsbrauch im Landkriege (Kriegsgeschichtliche Einzelschriften 31), Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn.Google Scholar
Halleck, H. W. (1866, reprinted 1872). Elements of International Law and Laws of War, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.Google Scholar
Heilborn, P. (1896). Das System des Völkerrechts entwickelt aus den völkerrechtlichen Begriffen, Berlin: Verlag von Julius Springer.Google Scholar
Heilborn, P. (1912). Grundbegriffe des Völkerrechts, Vol. I, Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer.Google Scholar
Holland, T. E. (1880). The Elements of Jurisprudence, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Huber, M. (1913). Die kriegsrechtlichen Verträge und die Kriegsraison. Zeitschrift für Völkerrecht, 7, 351–74.Google Scholar
Hull, I. V. (2005). Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Hull, I. V. (2014). A Scrap of Paper. Breaking and Making International Law during the Great War, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
af Jochnik, C. and Normand, R. (1994). The Legitimation of Violence. A Critical History of the Laws of War. Harvard International Law Journal, 35(1), 49–95.Google Scholar
Jouannet, E. (2012). The Liberal-Welfarist Law of Nations: A History of International Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kaldor, M. and Chinkin, C. (2017). International Law and New Wars, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Keene, E. (2012). The Treaty-Making Revolution of the Nineteenth Century. The International History Review, 34(3), 475–500.Google Scholar
Kennedy, D. (2006). Of War and Law, Oxford: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kleinschmidt, H. (2013). Diskriminierung durch Vertrag und Krieg. Zwischenstaatliche Verträge und der Begriff des Kolonialkriegs in Völkerrechtstheorie, Militärtheorie und Praxis der internationalen Politik des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts, München: Oldenbourg.Google Scholar
Koellreutter, O. (1917/1918). Kriegsziel und Völkerrecht. Betrachtungen aus der Front. Abhandlungen. Zeitschrift für Völkerrecht,10, 493–503.Google Scholar
Kohler, J. (1916). Das neue Völkerrecht. Abhandlungen. Zeitschrift für Völkerrecht, 10, 5–10.Google Scholar
Kolb, R. (2013). The Main Epochs of Modern International Humanitarian Law since 1864 and Their Related Dominant Legal Constructions. In Mujezinović Larsen, K., Guldahl Cooper, C. and Nystuen, G., eds., Searching for a ‘Principle of Humanity’ in International Humanitarian Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 23–71.Google Scholar
Lammasch, H. (1917). Das Völkerrecht nach dem Kriege (Publications de l’Institut Nobel Norvegien III), Kristiania: H. Aschehoug & Co.Google Scholar
Lasson, A. (1871). Princip und Zukunft des Völkerrechts, Berlin: Wilhelm Hertz.Google Scholar
Lentner, F. (1880). Das Recht im Kriege. Kompendium des Völkerrechtes im Kriegsfalle. Dargestellt auf Grund der Brüsseler Deklaration vom 27. August 1874 über die Kriegssatzungen und Kriegsgebräuche, Wien: L.W. Seidel & Sohn.Google Scholar
Liivoja, R. (2012). Chivalry without a Horse: Military Honour and the Modern Law of Armed Conflict. In Liivoja, R. and Saumets, A., eds., The Law of Armed Conflict: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Tartu: Tartu University Press, 75–100.Google Scholar
Liivoja, R. (2013). Law and Honour: Normative Pluralism in the Regulation of Military Conduct. In Klabbers, J. and Piiparinen, T., eds., Normative Pluralism and International Law: Exploring Global Governance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 143–65.Google Scholar
Lorimer, J. (1883 and 1884). The Institutes of the Law of Nations: A Treatise of the Jural Relations of Separate Political Communities, 2 vols., Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons.Google Scholar
Lovrić-Pernak, K. (2013). Morale internationale und humanité im Völkerrecht des späten 19. Jahrhunderts. Bedeutung und Funktion in Staatenpraxis und Wissenschaft, Baden-Baden: Nomos.Google Scholar
Maine, H. J. S. (1888). Lecture VII: The Mitigation of War. In Maine, H. J. S., ed., International Law. A series of lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge 1887, New York: Henry Holt & Company.Google Scholar
Mälksoo, L. (2005). The Science of International Law and the Concept of Politics. The Arguments and Lives of the International Law Professors at the University of Dorpat/Iur’ev/Tartu 1855–1985. British Year Book of International Law, 76(1), 383–502.Google Scholar
de Martens, F. (1903). Préface. In Merignhac, A., ed., Les lois et coutumes de la guerre sur terre d’après le droit international moderne et la codification de la Conférence de la Haye de 1899. Ouvrage précédé d’une lettre du ministre de la guerre et d’une préface par F. de Martens, Paris: Librairie Maresque & Cie, Éditeurs.Google Scholar
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, A. (1927). Kriegsnotwendigkeiten und Repressalien. Zwei Feinde des Völkerrechts. Europäische Gespräche, Hamburger Monatshefte für Auswärtige Politik, 6, 319–28.Google Scholar
Mérignhac, A. (1907). Les théories du grand état-major allemand sur les lois de la guerre continentale mises en regard de la doctrine de la pratique des divers états et des décisions de la Conférence de La Haye de 1899. Conférence aux officiers sous les auspices de l’université & du commandement en chef du 17e corps d’armée. Revue générale de droit international public, Vol. 14, Paris: A. Pedone, 197–239.Google Scholar
Messerschmidt, M. (1983). Völkerrecht und ‘Kriegsnotwendigkeit’ in der deutschen militärischen Tradition seit den Einigungskriegen. German Studies Review, 6( 2), 237–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neff, S. C. (2014). Justice among Nations: A History of International Law, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nuzzo, L. and Vec, M., eds., (2012). Constructing International Law: The Birth of a Discipline, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann.Google Scholar
Oppenheim, L. F. L. (1906). International Law. A Treatise, Vol 2: War and Neutrality, London: Longmans, Green, & Co.Google Scholar
Orakhelashvili, A. (2011). The 19th-Century Life of International Law. In Orakhelashvili, A., ed., Research Handbook on the Theory and History of International Law, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 441–55.Google Scholar
Pfizer, P. A. (1846). Art. ‘Ewiger Friede’. In von Rotteck, K. and Welcker, C. T., eds., Das Staats-Lexikon. Encyklopädie der sämmtlichen Staatswissenschaften für alle Stände, 2nd ed., Vol. IV, Altona: Hammerich, 560–64.Google Scholar
Porter, J. B. (1914). International Law, Having Particular Reference to the Laws of War on Land, 2nd ed., Fort Leavenworth, KS: Press of the Army Service Schools.Google Scholar
Proudhon, P. J. (1861). La guerre et la paix: Recherches sur le principe et la constitution du droit des gens, Paris: E Dentu.Google Scholar
Rivier, A. (1896). Principes du droit des gens, Vol. II, Paris: Arthur Rousseau.Google Scholar
von Rochau, L. A. (1853). Grundsätze der Realpolitik, angewendet auf die staatlichen Zustände Deutschlands, Vol. 1, Stuttgart: K. Göpel.Google Scholar
Schlemmer, T. (2014). Pfadabhängigkeit, situative Kontingenz und ‘Kriegsnotwendigkeit’. Deutsche Kriegführung und Verstöße gegen das Kriegsvölkerrecht 1914 bis 1918. In Schlemmer, T., Löhnig, M. and Preisner, M., eds., Krieg und Recht – Die Ausdifferenzierung des Rechts von der ersten Haager Friedenskonferenz bis heute, Regenstauf: H. Gietl Verlag & Publikationsservice, 25–47.Google Scholar
Schmitt, C. (1950). Der Nomos der Erde im Völkerrecht des Jus Publicum Europaeum, Cologne: Greven Verlag.Google Scholar
Simon, H. (2016). Das Recht des Krieges. Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History, 24, 508–10.Google Scholar
Simon, H. (2018). The Myth of Liberum Ius ad Bellum: Justifying War in Nineteenth-Century Legal Theory and Political Practice. The European Journal of International Law, 29(1), 113–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, G. (2007). Law, War and Crime: War Crimes Trials and the Reinvention of International Law, Cambridge: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Sluga, G. (2013). Internationalism in the Age of Nationalism, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stolleis, M. (1988). Geschichte des öffentlichen Rechts in Deutschland. Band 1: Reichspublizistik und Policeywissenschaft, 1600–1800, München: C. H. Beck.Google Scholar
Taylor, H. (1901). A Treatise on International Public Law, Chicago: Callaghan & Company.Google Scholar
Toppe, A. (2008). Militär und Kriegsvölkerrecht. Rechtsnorm, Fachdiskurs und Kriegspraxis in Deutschland 1899–1940, München: Oldenbourg.Google Scholar
de Vattel, E. (1758). Le droit des gens, ou principes de la loi naturelle, appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des nations et des souverains, London.Google Scholar
Vec, M. (2006). Recht und Normierung in der Industriellen Revolution, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann.Google Scholar
Vec, M. (2017a). Sources in the Nineteenth Century European Tradition: The Myth of Positivism. In Besson, S. and d’Aspremont, J., eds., Oxford Handbook on the Sources of International Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 121–45.Google Scholar
Vec, M. (2017b). Challenging the Laws of War by Technology, Blazing Nationalism and Militarism: Debating Chemical Warfare before and after Ypres, 1899–1925. In Friedrich, B., et al., eds., 100 Years of Chemical Warfare. Research, Deployment, Consequences, Berlin: Springer Verlag, 105–34.Google Scholar
Westlake, J. (1894). Chapters on the Principles of International Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Westlake, J. (1907). International Law. Part II: War, 1st ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Whitman, J. Q. (2014). The Verdict of Battle. The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Witt, J. F. (2011). The Dismal History of the Laws of War. UC Irvine Law Review, 1(3), 895–911.Google Scholar
Ziegler, K. H. (2004). Zur Entwicklung von Kriegsrecht und Kriegsverhütung im Völkerrecht des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts. Archiv des Völkerrechts, 42(3), 271–93.Google Scholar
Zoller, O. (1915). Das Völkerrecht und der Krieg 1914/15, Zürich: Verlag von Rascher & Cie.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×