Ordinances and Articles of War Before the Lieber Code, 866-1863: The Long Pre-History of International Humanitarian Law

Abstract

Key textbooks and reference works on International Humanitarian Law treat it as though it had not existed before the American Lieber Code, a set of ordinances for conduct in war, was adopted unilaterally in 1863. The Lieber Code, however, was only one in a series of such ordinances which can be traced back in Europe to the 9 th century. These were indeed established norms and traditions, as the application of the four criteria listed by the Statute of the International Court of Justice show: they were applied by (here: military) tribunals and