the guidance of naval officers, though it may serve as a useful supplement to both. In short, my object has been to produce a volume useful not only for student and layman, but also for those who have to deal promptly with actual cases as they arise. 13, OLD SQUARE, LINCOLN'S INN. T. B. 3. Convention with Respect to the Law and Usage of War on Land and Regulations (1899-1907) 4. Convention relating to the Rights and Duties of 5. Convention relating to the Treatment of Enemy Merchant Ships at the Commencement of Hostilities (1907) 160 162 9. Convention relating to Certain Restrictions in the Exer- cise of the Right of Capture in Maritime War (1907) II. Convention (Geneva) for the Amelioration of the Con- 13. International Declaration of St. Petersburg (1868) 14. Declaration relating to Projectiles diffusing Deleterious 15. Declaration relative to Expanding Bullets (1899) 16. Declaration relative to discharging Projectiles and INTRODUCTION WAR brings into operation certain rights and duties, as between belligerent States and their citizens, as between the belligerents, and as between belligerents and neutrals, which remain in force from the date of the commencement of the war (q.v.) until its termination. An armistice (q.v.) is not a suspension of war, but of hostilities. War ceases only with the conclusion of peace. The law of war comes into operation as regards citizens of a belligerent State from the day and hour from which it is officially notified to begin. As between belligerents it dates from receipt of notice of the declaration of war by the enemy State. The hour of receipt of the notice is of importance, but it has not the same effect as in the case of neutrals.1 A neutral State is only affected by the existence of war from the date of receipt of notice, which may be sent by telegraph, although it is debarred from setting up absence of notice if it can be shown that it was beyond question aware of its existence, this knowledge being equivalent to notice whose only object is to place the possession of it beyond question. 2 From these respective dates the law of war is operative against all mankind. The law of war may be subdivided into (a) relations between belligerents in war on land, (b) relations between belligerents in naval war, (c) relations between belligerents and neutrals in war on land, and (d) relations between belligerents and neutrals in naval war. 1 See Hague Convention, 1907, No. I. Art. 1, and No. VI. A great deal of the law relating to these different aspects of war has already been codified by the Geneva Convention (1906), The Hague Conventions and Declarations (1899-1907), and the Declaration of London (1908-09). To division (a) belong Conventions No. III., relating to the commencement of hostilities, and No. IV. (with the Regulations for the conduct of armies in the field), concerning the laws and customs of war on land. To division (b) belong No. VI., relating to the treatment of enemy merchant ships at the commencement of hostilities; No. VII., relating to the conversion of merchant ships into ships of war; No. VIII., relating to the employment of submarine mines; No. IX., relating to bombardments by naval forces; and No. XI., relating to mail-ships and fishing and coasting vessels. There is also the Geneva Convention relating to the sick and wounded in time of war, and The Hague Convention, No. X., adapting its principles to maritime war. The drafting of a code of Regulations for the conduct of naval war like those annexed to Convention No. IV. for war on land was bequeathed to the Third Hague Conference, which was to have been held eight years after the second-that is, in 1915. The Institute of International Law has meanwhile drawn up a proposed code of the laws and customs of maritime warfare, in which the rules already adopted on this subject have been incorporated, and in which the existing code of regulations for the conduct of war on land has been adapted to naval war. This "code of naval war was finally discussed at a plenary meeting of the Institute of International Law (q.v.) at the Oxford meeting of that body in 1913, and may meanwhile be regarded as an authoritative statement by the chief international lawyers of Europe on the subject. To division (c) belongs Convention No. V. relating to the rights and duties of neutral Powers and persons in war on land; and to division (d), Convention No. XIII. relating to the rights and duties of neutral persons in naval war. Το this division also belongs the Declaration of London, which forms an international code of Prize Law. The law of naval war differing in essential particulars from the law of war on land, it is of importance to bear in mind |