Oxford Manual

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The Oxford Manual refers to two different sets of rules published by the Institut de Droit international (Institute for International Law) that summarize regulations on warfare . The Manuel des lois de la guerre sur terre ("Handbook of the Rules of Land War"), adopted in 1880, contains rules for land warfare and was an important basis for the corresponding Hague Convention on the Laws and Customs of Land Warfare of 1899 and 1907 analogous to this, the Manuel des lois de la guerre maritime ("Handbook of the rules of naval warfare") published with rules for naval warfare. This was essentially a compilation of the provisions of several of the Hague Conventions of 1907. A modernized version of the Oxford Manual from 1913 was adopted in 1994 as the San Remo Manual .

The Oxford Manual of 1880

The Oxford Manual, adopted in 1880 under the title Manuel des lois de la guerre sur terre or English The Laws of War on Land ("The rules of the land war") contained 86 articles regulations on land warfare. It was drafted by the Geneva lawyer and President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Gustave Moynier and unanimously adopted by the Institut de Droit international (Institute for International Law) at its sixth meeting on September 9, 1880 in Oxford . The manual was essentially based on rules established under customary law , such as those contained in the Lieber Code of 1863 and in the declaration of the Brussels Conference of 1874 . It was primarily intended as a basis for national legislation on martial law in the states of that time, as the members of the institute did not yet see the time for a corresponding international agreement as having come. In this respect, it was not itself binding under international law. However, it formed an important basis for later agreements in this area such as the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, the Geneva Conventions on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and the Civilian Population of 1929 and 1949 and the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954.

The Oxford Manual of 1880 defined and affirmed a number of basic principles of warfare. It contained, among other things, a ban on the use of poisonous substances for warfare, a ban on treachery , the requirement to avoid unnecessary suffering and a ban on killing an incapacitated or surrendering enemy and thus the order that no pardon be given. It also formulated various rules for treating the civilian population . For bombings it introduced the principle that religious, cultural or scientific institutions as well as hospitals and other buildings of great importance for the general public are to be spared as far as possible. With regard to the treatment of wounded and sick soldiers, the manual adopted the rules of the first Geneva Convention of 1864. As regards the internment of prisoners of war , captivity was neither a punitive measure nor an act of retaliation and that prisoners of war should be treated humanely accordingly.

The 1913 Oxford Manual

At its 27th session, which took place again in Oxford, took the Institut de Droit international on August 9, 1913 under the title Manuel des lois de la guerre maritime ("The rules of the sea war"), English Manual of the Laws of Naval War , a set of rules , also known in part as the Oxford Manual , which, analogous to the 1880 manual, contained regulations on naval warfare. This manual contained 116 articles and an additional article. It differed in one essential point from the Oxford Manual of 1880. This was largely not based on existing treaties, but was intended to compensate for the lack of binding international agreements by serving as a template for national law. The 1913 manual on naval warfare, on the other hand, was largely a summary of the rules that were already in force under international law through several of the Hague Conventions of 1907.

On the one hand, the Oxford Manual of 1913 took over some essential principles from the Oxford Manual of 1880, possibly with a corresponding adaptation to naval warfare. For example, the prohibition on killing an opponent who was incapacitated or surrendering was supplemented by a ban on sinking surrendering enemy ships as long as the crew has not left the ship. It was also prohibited to use torpedoes that were not ineffective if they missed their target, as well as contact mines in open waters that are not part of the territory of one of the parties to the conflict. The rules also included an obligation to remove all mines as much as possible after the end of the war. With reference to the Hague Convention on the Laws and Customs of Land War of 1907, the amendment regulates the payment of compensation for violations of the rules of the manual.

The 1994 San Remo Manual

The San Remo Manual on international law applicable to armed conflicts at sea, adopted on June 12, 1994 in Livorno (Italy) on the initiative of the Institut de Droit after six years of deliberations, can be viewed as a modernized edition of the Oxford Manual from 1913. It contains 183 paragraphs and, compared to its predecessor, has been expanded to include the legal bases that were adopted after 1913. This applies in particular to the Geneva Conventions in their versions from 1949 and their additional protocols from 1977.

literature

  • Dietrich Schindler , Jiří Toman (Eds.): The Laws of Armed Conflicts: A Collection of Conventions, Resolutions, and Other Documents. Third revised edition. Sijthoff & Noordhoff International Publishers, Alphen aan den Rijn 1988, ISBN 9-02-473306-5 , pp. 36-48 and pp. 858-875
  • Louise Doswald-Beck (Ed.): San Remo Manual on International Law applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea. Grotius Publications and Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1995, ISBN 0-52-155188-9

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