The Rights of War and Peace

Definition and origin of punishment--In what manner punishment relates to strict justice--The right of punishing allowed by the law of nature, to none, except to those, who are...

Admonitions to the observance of good faith--Peace always to be kept in view in the midst of war--Peace beneficial to the conquered--To the conqueror--And to be chosen in cases...

The external obligation of promises--Words where other conjectures are wanting to be taken in their popular meaning--Terms of art to be interpreted according to the acceptation...

The Division of War into public and private--Examples to prove that all private War is not repugnant to the Law of Nature since the erection of Courts of Justice--The Division o...

In monarchies the power of making peace a royal prerogative--In aristocracies and democracies, this right belongs to a greater number of persons--In what manner the public domin...

The general rights of things--Division of what is our own--The origin and progress of property--Some things impossible to be made the subject of property--The Sea of this nature...

What is lawful in war--General Rules derived from the law of nature--Stratagems and lies--Arrangement of the following parts--First rule, all things necessary to the end lawful-...

Reasons proving the lawfulness of War--Proofs from History--Proofs from general consent--The Law of Nature proved not repugnant to War--War not condemned by the voluntary Divine...

Human actions divided into simple or mixed--Gratuitous, or accompanied with mutual obligation--Acts by way of exchange, adjustment of what is to be given or done--Partnership--C...

Of War--Definition of War--Right, of Governors and of the governed, and of equals--Right as a Quality divided into Faculty and Fitness--Faculty denoting Power, Property, and Cre...

Opinion, that the obligation to fulfil promises is not enacted by the law of nature, refuted--A bare assertion not binding--A promiser bound to fulfil his engagements, though no...

Causes of War--Defence of person and property--What are called justifiable causes of war--Justifiable causes of War are Defence, recovery of one's property or debt, or the punis...

How accessories are liable to punishment--Sovereign Princes or States answerable for the misconduct of their subjects, when they know it, and do not endeavour to prevent it--Sov...

Law of nature with respect to the acquisition of things captured in war--Law of nations on the same subject--In what cases the law of nations confirms the capture of things move...

Right of Embassies, an obligation arising out of the law of nations--Where it obtains--Whether Embassies are always to be admitted--Dismissal or punishment of ambassadors engagi...

for the most part very indefinite and obscure. Now both justice and common sense require such general expressions to be taken in a limited acceptation, and allow us, in explaini...

Solemn war, according to the Law of Nations between different states--A people, though engaged in unjust war, to be distinguished from pirates and robbers--Change in the conditi...

General explanation of the effects of formal war--Distinction between lawful and innocent impunity--Merit of the latter--Examples added to explain it--General effects of former...

Public Conventions--Divided into treaties, engagements, and other compacts--Difference between treaties and the engagements made by delegates exceeding their powers--Treaties fo...

Why Usucaption or Prescription cannot subsist between independent States, and Sovereigns--Long possession alleged as a ground of right--Inquiry into the intentions of men, which...

Truces of an intermediate denomination between peace and war--Origin of the word--New declaration of war not necessary after a truce--Time from whence a truce and all its corres...

Origin and nature of the obligation to restore what belongs to another--Obligation to restore to the rightful owner the profits that have accrued from the unjust possession of h...

On Damages occasioned by injury, and the obligation to repair them--Every misdemeanor obliges the aggressor to repair the loss--By loss is meant any thing repugnant to right str...

Origin of the term, postliminium--Where it takes effect--Certain things recoverable thereby--In what cases the right of postliminium prevails in peace, as well as war--What righ...

No one but an heir bound by the act of another--Property of subjects answerable for the debts of sovereigns, according to the law of Nations--Capture of persons and property aft...

Right of burying the dead founded on the law of nations--Origin of this right--Due to enemies--Whether due to those guilty of atrocious crimes--Whether to those, who have commit...

Differences between real and colourable motives--War atrocious without either of these motives--Wars of plunder, under the most plausible pretexts, not justifiable--Causes appar...

Good faith due to enemies of every description--Due even to pirates, and others of the same kind, in all treaties with them--A promise given to them, binding, when not extorted...

Efficacy of oaths among Pagans--Deliberation requisite in oaths--The sense, in which oaths are understood to be taken, to be adhered to--To be taken according to the usual meani...

Specification of moveable property--The difference between sovereignty and property--The right to moveables by occupancy may be superseded by law--Rivers may be occupied--Right...

In what cases strict justice allows the destruction of an enemy--Distinction between misfortune and guilt--Between principals and accessories in war--Distinction between unwarra...

Origin of moral doubts--The dictates of conscience, though erroneous, not to be violated--Opposite opinions supported by argument, or by authority--In doubtful and important mat...

Jurisdiction and property cease, when the family of the owner has become extinct--In what manner the rights of a people may become extinct--A people becomes extinct when its ess...

Sovereigns may engage in war to support the rights of their subjects--Whether an innocent subject can be delivered up to an enemy to avoid danger--Wars justly undertaken in supp...

Relaxation of right in order to avoid war--particularly penalties--Self-preservation motive for forbearing hostilities--Prudential rules in the choice of advantages--Peace prefe...

Commanders--Extent of their engagements in binding the sovereign--Exceeding their commission--The opposite party bound by such engagements--Power of commanders in war, or of mag...

Lawfulness of despoiling an enemy's country--Forbearance of using this right, where things may be useful to ourselves, and out of an enemy's power--Forbearance in the hopes of s...

How far internal justice permits us to acquire dominion--Moderation, in the use of this right over the conquered, laudable--Incorporating them with the conquerors--Allowing them...

Effects belonging to the subjects of an enemy, and taken detained as a pledge or debt--Not to be taken by way of punishment for another's offence--The debt or obligation, arisin...

I. If individuals can reduce each other to subjection, it is not surprising that states can do the same, and by this means acquire a civil, absolute, or mixed, dominion. So that...

By the law of nations, slavery the result of being taken in solemn war--The same condition extends to the descendants of those taken--The power over them--Even incorporeal thing...

I. Cicero, in the third book of his offices, has said that there is nothing repugnant to the LAW OF NATURE in spoiling the effects of an enemy, whom by the same law we are autho...

Internal justice requires the restitution of things taken from others by an enemy in unjust war--Deductions made--Subjects and countries, if unjustly seized by an enemy, to be r...

Tacit faith--Example of in desiring to be taken under the protection of a king or nation--Implied in the demand or grant of a conference--Allowable for the party seeking it to p...

I. It may appear superfluous to speak of neutral powers, against whom no rights of war can exist. But as war, under the plea of necessity, occasions many aggressions to be commi...