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Mines, Booby-traps and Other Devices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

A. P. V. Rogers
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Extract

In the Declaration of St. Petersburg of 1868 the signatory States recognized that the object of war is to weaken the enemy's military forces, for which it is sufficient to disable the greatest possible number of men, and that this object would be exceeded by the employment of arms which uselessly aggravate the sufferings of disabled men or render their death inevitable.

This principle was repeated in Article 23(e) of the Regulations annexed to The Hague Convention No. IV of 1907 concerning the laws and customs of war on land. That article forbids the employment of arms, projectiles or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering. The authentic French text of the article referred to “des armes, des projectiles ou des matières propres à causer des maux superflus” whereas the English text of the same article referred to “arms, projectiles or material calculated to cause superfluous injury”.

Type
Tenth Anniversary of the 1980 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 30 , Issue 279 , December 1990 , pp. 521 - 534
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1990

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References

1 See Official Records of the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts, Geneva (1974-1977), Département politique fédéral, Bern, 1978, XV, p. 267, CDDH/215/Rev.l, paras. 19 and 21. See also Commentary on the Additional Protocol of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, Ed. Yves Sandoz, Christophe Swinarski, Bruno Zimmermann, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, ICRC, Geneva, 1987, pp. 406-407, para. 1426.

2 For text, see Roberts, & Guelff, , Documents on the Laws of War, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1989, at p. 473 Google Scholar.

3 For text, see ibid., at p. 479.

4 Sloan, Col. C., “Land Mines—An Appraisal”, Military Technology, 2/86, at p. 74 Google Scholar.

5 Fenrick, Cdr. W. J., “The Law of Armed Conflict, The CUSHIE Weapons Treaty”, CDQ, Summer 1981, at. p. 28 Google Scholar.

6 Gander, T. J., “Land Mine Warfare—The British Position”, Jane's Defence Review, Vol. 4, No. 6, 1983, at p. 597 Google Scholar.

7 Sloan, op. cit., at p. 75.

8 A number of the early published texts of the Convention and articles relating to it incorrectly used the formula “directed at” rather than “directed against”, which appears in the authentic text.

9 Which can be by word of mouth to prevent that knowledge reaching the enemy.

10 Carnahan, Lt. Col. B. M., “The Law of Land Mine Warfare—Protocol II to the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons”, Military Law and Law of War Review, 1-2, 1983, at p. 124.

11 Rogers, Lt. Col. A. P. V., “A Commentary on the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-traps and Other Devices”, Military Law and Law of War Review, 1, 2, 3, 1987 at p. 195.

12 Gander, T. J, op. cit., at p. 603.

13 For a full discussion of this problem, see Carnahan, op. cit., at p. 128.

14 Useful examples of agreements in armistices are given by Carnahan, op. cit., at p. 126.

15 Gander, T. J., “The Underground World of the Land Mine”, Jane's Military Review 1983/4, at p. 59.Google Scholar

16 Ibid, at p. 63.

17 Gander, T. J., “Land Mine Warfare”, op. cit., at p. 603.

18 Ibid., at pp. 601-607.

19 Ibid., at p. 603.

20 Ibid., at p. 600.

21 Ibid., at p. 601.

22 Sloan, op. cit., at p. 21; Gander, ibid., at p. 601.

23 Dr.Rauch, E., “The Protection of the Civilian Population in International Armed Conflicts and the Use of Landmines”, German Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 24, 1981, at p. 262 Google Scholar.

24 Hughes-Morgan, Maj. Gen. D. J., A Criticism of Some Aspects of the Report by Dr. E. Rauch (paper presented to the Committee for the Protection of Human Life in Armed Conflict of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War, Bern, October 1981, unpublished).

25 Rauch, op. cit., at p. 277.

26 Rauch, op. cit., at p. 282.