The Outlawry of War and the Law of War

Bibliographic Data

ID9554230
AuthorsQuincy Wright (Council of Science Editors, corresponding author)
Year1953
Volume47
Issue3
Pages365-376
Publication date1953-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of International Law (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9300 • E-ISSN: 2161-7953
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2194678
OpenAlexW2331860633
LanguageEN
Citations received7

This title appears to be self-contradictory. How can there be a law of war if war is outlawed? This apparent contradiction disappears, howover, if the distinction between “ war in the legal sense” and “ war in the material sense” is kept in mind. War in the legal sense has been in large measure “outlawed” ; that is, the international law conventionally accepted by most states no longer recognizes that large-scale hostilities may constitute a “state of war” in which the belligerents are legally equal. Such hostilities may, however, occur constituting war in the material sense, and “laws of war” may regulate such activities. This has, in fact, long been the situation within the state. All states “outlaw” domestic insurrection, rebellion and civil strife, yet if these events occur, they apply the laws of war to the hostilities involved in their efforts at suppression. The first modern codification of the law of war was, in fact, issued by the United States to apply to civil strife. Nor does the adoption of the rules of war toward rebels imply an engagement with them extending beyond the limits of these rules.... Treating, in the field, the rebellious enemy according to the law and usages of war has never prevented a legitimate government from trying the leaders of the rebellion or chief rebels for high treason, and from treating them accordingly, unless they are included in a general amnesty

Contradiction · International law · Just war theory · Law of war · Military operations other than war · Political science · Politics · Sovereign state · Sovereignty · Spanish Civil War · State (computer science · War crime · American Constitutional Law and Politics · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Philosophy · War, Ethics, and Justification

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