occupation
In the event of an occupation or occupation (depending on the context, also occupation ; from Latin occupare `` occupy '' ), the existing territorial sovereignty in a populated area is replaced by his own on the initiative of an external ruler . This is mostly done by military means. In addition, in international law , the occupation of an area without a rulership by a state power is referred to as an occupation.
More recently, an occupation has also been characterized by the fact that the occupying power does not become a legal executive under international law . In contrast to annexation , however, the foreign territory is not incorporated into one's own national territory under state or international law. No state sovereignty is established after territorial sovereignty has been acquired by external rulers on their initiative, which means that no area is increased, and no occupied territory becomes state territory. After independence aspiring populations often denote the state that dominates their territory, as an occupying power, even if they are no occupation in the legal sense. Similarly, the occupants are individual representatives of the occupying power or their entirety present in the country.
When it comes to occupation, a distinction is made between peaceful (occupatio pacifica) and warlike occupation (occupatio bellica) .
international law
Peaceful occupation
According to international law, the (peaceful) occupation is the legal occupation of a territory that was not previously part of the national territory of the appropriating power. The prerequisite is the declared will to appropriate and the effective exercise of dominion over the occupied territory. In addition, this area must either have been previously unknown or given up by its sovereign ( dereliction ).
The peaceful occupation played a central role during European expansion . In the 15th and 16th centuries, the acquisition of non-European territories was initially based on the missionary mandate of Jesus Christ and papal authority, for example in the papal bull Inter caetera of 1493 or in the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). In contrast, since the 17th century, the theory of terra nullius , the abandoned area, came to the fore. As Johann Jacob Moser put it in 1778, this could be subjected to any European sovereign to his rule, provided that he could actually enforce his state authority there. This area could then not be disputed by any other European power. This was in contradiction to the common practice of colonialism , according to which non-European territories were mostly taken over by way of contracts with local rulers. Since the mere existence of non-European rulers belied the legal figure of terra nullius , a theory of graduated sovereignty was developed , according to which the European states exercised sovereignty in the full sense of the word, non-European potentates only to a limited extent and nomads lacking any statehood. As recently as 1884, the legal fiction of terra nullius was used as a basis for the Congo Act , with which the colonization of large parts of Africa by the European powers was regulated. It was also the basis of the European settlement of Australia and the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Military occupation
The Hague Land Warfare Regulations of 1907, an early part of international martial law , limits the use of force when occupying enemy territory, also known as occupatio bellica .
The resulting legal regime aims to balance three potentially contradicting interests: the security interests of the occupying power , the sovereignty interests of the state to which the occupied territory still belongs, and the interests of its people . This may be compelled to obey the occupying power, even if de jure there is no obligation to obey. Propaganda for joining one's own armed forces is not permitted. As a result of the occupation, the occupying power is responsible for the welfare of the local population and must protect them from acts of violence, namely looting . It must also guarantee an adequate supply of food and medical services as well as the maintenance of necessary elements of the infrastructure . It has to leave the legal system of the occupied territory untouched, provided that it does not violate human rights. Deportations and population transfers are prohibited. These protection obligations must not be circumvented by annexing the area. They are binding from the moment when one's own armed forces have de facto some control over the area in question and end when it is lost.
Examples of military occupations
Historical occupations
- Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1878 occupation campaign ( annexed in 1908 )
- Occupation of northern France up to the Creuse by German troops during and after the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1873). The Peace of Frankfurt of May 10, 1871 provided that the departments of Oise , Seine-et-Oise , Seine-et-Marne and Seine as well as the fortifications of Paris should remain occupied until the reparations imposed on France were paid .
- Occupation of Nicaragua by US forces (1912–1925) as part of the banana wars
- Occupation of Belgium , Lithuania , Latvia , Belarus and Poland by the armed forces of the German Reich during World War I (1914 to 1918)
- Allied occupation of the Rhineland by Belgian, British and French troops (1918–1930) in accordance with the Compiègne Armistice (1918) and the Treaty of Versailles (1920)
- Occupation of the Ruhr by Belgian and French troops as a sanction due to German arrears on reparations (1923–1925)
- Occupation of numerous European states by the German Wehrmacht during World War II , including Belgium , Denmark , France , Greece , Yugoslavia , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Norway , Poland and parts of the Soviet Union
- Allied occupation of Germany and Austria , each divided into four zones of occupation , after World War II. The military governments of the occupying powers of the Soviet Union , the United States , Great Britain and France declared from 1946 that it was an occupatio sui generis to which the restrictions of the international law of war did not apply. This interpretation later found its way into the German scientific discourse.
- Occupation of Japan by US troops after World War II (1945–1951). The Bonin Islands and Ryukyu were not evacuated until 1968 and 1972, respectively.
- Occupation of the de facto independent Tibet by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1950. With the agreement for the peaceful liberation of Tibet of October 24, 1951, it was incorporated or annexed into the People's Republic of China as the Tibet Autonomous Region . The status of Tibet under international law is controversial.
- Soviet occupation of Afghanistan 1979–1989
- Occupation of Iraq 2003–2011 by the United States and its allies
Current occupations
- West Bank occupied by Jordan during the Palestinian War in 1948 , annexed in 1950. Occupied by Israel in the Six Day War in 1967
- Northern Cyprus occupied by Turkey in 1974 , the local population of Greek descent largely expelled, belongs to the Republic of Cyprus under international law
- Western Sahara occupied by Morocco and Mauritania in 1976 , annexed by Morocco since 1979. Mauritania withdrew its troops in 1979.
- Afrin - occupied by a Turkish military offensive in connection with the Syrian Civil War in 2018 .
See also
Web links
Remarks
- ^ Marten Breuer : Acquisition of territory, state. In: Burkhard Schöbener (Ed.), Völkerrecht. Lexicon of central terms and topics , CF Müller, Heidelberg 2014, p. 110.
- ↑ Andrea Weindl: Inter Caetera, mare liberum and terra nullius - European international law and the non-European world. In: Inken Schmidt-Voges, Siegrid Westphal , Volker Arnke and Tobias Bartke (eds.): Pax perpetua. Recent Research on Peace in the Early Modern Period. Oldenbourg, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-486-71928-4 , pp. 354-360 and 375-381 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
- ^ Michael Bothe : Peacekeeping and Martial Law. In: Wolfgang Graf Vitzthum and Alexander Proelß (eds.): Völkerrecht. 7th edition, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-044130-7 , pp. 855 f., Rn. 82 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
- ↑ Josef Matuz : The Ottoman Empire. Baseline of its history. WBG, Darmstadt 2006, p. 239 f. and 252.
- ^ Raymond Poidevin and Jacques Bariéty: France and Germany. The history of their relationships 1815–1975. CH Beck, Munich 1982, pp. 120 and 128.
- ^ Alan McPherson: A Short History of US Interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester 2016, pp. 63–68 and 106.
- ^ Peter Krüger : The foreign policy of the republic of Weimar. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1985, pp. 199-206.
- ^ Bernhard Diestelkamp : Legal history as contemporary history. Historical considerations on the development and implementation of the theory of the continued existence of the German Reich as a state after 1945. In: Zeitschrift für Neuere Rechtsgeschichte 7 (1985), p. 185.
- ↑ Georg Dahm , Jost Delbrück , Rüdiger Wolfrum : Völkerrecht , Vol. I / 1, 2nd edition, Berlin 1989, p. 225 with further references; Theo Stammen , Gerold Maier: The Allied Occupation Regime in Germany . In: Josef Becker , Theo Stammen, Peter Waldmann (eds.): Prehistory of the Federal Republic of Germany. Between surrender and the Basic Law. UTB / W. Funk, Munich 1979, p. 61 f.
- ↑ Oliver Dörr: The incorporation as an offense of state succession . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1995, pp. 363-369; Marcus Hölzl: Tibet - from Empire to Chinese Colony: A Historical and Socio-theoretical Analysis. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2009, pp. 71–84.
- Jump up ↑ Jörg Menzel, Tobias Pierlings, Jeannine Hoffmann (eds.): Völker Jurisdiction . Selected decisions on international law in retrospective , Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2005, p. 146.