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Origin of the twin terms jus ad bellum/jus in bello

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Extract

The august solemnity of Latin confers on the terms jus ad helium and jus in bello the misleading appearance of being centuries old. In fact, these expressions were only coined at the time of the League of Nations and were rarely used in doctrine or practice until after the Second World War, in the late 1940s to be precise. This article seeks to chart their emergence.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1997

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References

1 Jus ad bellum refers to the conditions under which one may resort to war or to force in general; jus in bello governs the conduct of belligerents during a war, and in a broader sense comprises the rights and obligations of neutral parties as well.

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3 There is an abundant literature on the concept of just war.

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9 The rule limiting the competence to wage war to the public authorities (i.e. the sovereign) is affirmed in an oft-quoted passage of St Thomas Aquinas which sets out the three prerequisites for such competence: auctoritas principis, justa causa and recta intentio (Summa theologica, II, II, 40, 1). See Schilling, O., Das Volkerrecht nach Thomas von Aquin Google Scholar, Freiburg im Breisgau/Berlin, 1919. On recta intentio, see Haggenmacher, , Grotius, op. cit., pp. 401 ff.Google Scholar

10 See below.

11 Grotius, , op. cit. Google Scholar, prolegomena, para. 28: “Ego cum ob eas, quas jam dixl, rationes, compertissimum haberem, esse aliquod inter populos ius commune, quod & ad bella & in bellis valeret…”. See also Book I, chap. I, 3, 1: “De iure belli cum inscribimus hanc tractationem, primum hoc ipsum intelligimus, quod dictum jam est, sitne bellum aliquod iustum, & deinde quid in bellum iustum sit”. (In giving our treatise the title The law of war, we first wish to examine, as we have said, whether war can be just and what is just in war. — ICRC translation.)

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21 As N. Politis puts it with his usual elegance in Les nouvelles tendances du droit international (Paris, 1927, pp. 100101)Google Scholar: “Sovereignty killed the theory of justum bellum. The States' assertion that they did not have to account for their deeds led them to claim the right to use the force at their disposal as they saw fit” — ICRC translation)

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23 See for example Saint Augustine, De civitate Dei, I, 1, and Epistula CXXXVI.

24 Saint Augustine, De civitate Dei, I, 1; I, 6; XIX, 23.

25 Ibid.

26 Grotius, De iure praedae, chap. VII, art. III–IV.

27 Ibid.

28 Grotius, De iure belli ac pads, Book III, chap. I, 1.

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31 G. Baker of Swinbrook, Chronicon, Oxford, 1889, pp. 86, 96 and 154.Google Scholar

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34 See the cases of David Margnies vs Prévôt de Paris (Parlement de Paris, ca 1420) and of Jean de Melun vs Henry Pomfret (Parlement de Paris, 1365), in Keen, , The laws of war, op. cit., pp. 18 and 260.Google Scholar

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40 Keen, , The laws of war, op. cit., pp. 722 Google Scholar. It was only in the sixteenth century, at the time of the School of Salamanca, that jus belli took on the meaning that it has today in public law. See Haggenmacher, , Grotius, op. cit., p. 283.Google Scholar

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