Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Printed as manuscript for the Board appointed by the Secretary ofWar [Special Orders, No. 399,] “To Propose Amendments or Changesin the Rules and Articles of War, and a Code of Regulations for theGovernment of Armies in the Field, as authorized by the Laws andUsages of War.”
§ 1. A place, district, or country, invested or occupiedby an enemy, stands, in consequence of the occupation, underthe Martial Law of the investing or invading army,whether any proclamation declaring Martial Law, or anypublic warning to the inhabitants, has been issued or not.Martial Law is the immediate and direct effect and consequenceof occupation or conquest.
The presence of a hostile army proclaims its MartialLaw.
§ 2. Martial Law does not cease during the hostile occupation,except by special proclamation, ordered by the commanderin chief; or by special mention in the treaty ofpeace, concluding the war, when the occupation of a place2or territory continues beyond the conclusion of peace, asone of the conditions of the same.
§ 3. Martial Law in a hostile country, consists in the suspension,by the occupying military authority, of the criminaland civil law, and of the domestic administration andgovernment in the occupied place or territory, and in thesubstitution of military rule and force, for the same; as wellas in the dictation of general laws—as far as military necessityrequires this suspension, substitution, and dictation.
It is not unusual to proclaim that the administration ofall civil and penal law shall continue, as in times of peace,unless specially interfered with by the military authority.
§ 4. Martial Law, although called law, does not consist ina body of rules of action. There is not even a distinct termfor it in other languages.
Martial Law in a conquered or invaded country, or place,is temporary Military Absolutism, in the hands of commanders,who, therefore, must take care that it does not degenerateinto arbitrary despotism. Martial Law is not thereckless use of military power by the highest or lowest inarms. Military oppression is not Martial Law.
§ 5. Military Necessity, as understood by modern civilizednations, consists in the necessity of those measureswhich are indispensable for the obtaining of the ends of thewar, and are lawful according to the modern law and usagesof war.
§ 6. Modern times are distinguished from earlier ages,by the existence, at one and the same time, of many nationsand great governments, related to one another in closeintercourse. They draw abreast like chariot horses.
Peace is their normal condition; war is the exception.The ultimate object of all modern war is a renewed state ofpeace.
The more vigorously wars are pursued, the better it is forhumanity. S