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The 1899 Hague Declaration concerning Expanding Bullets. A treaty effective for more than 100 years faces complex contemporary issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2011

Extract

The 1899 Hague Declaration (the Declaration) is a treaty prohibition based on particular technical specifications about a weapon system, namely, the construction of bullets. The Declaration has been widely adhered to and has assumed the status of customary law. Although there have been allegations of violations of this treaty, to our knowledge none have been proven. From this point of view, the Declaration could be regarded as an effective treaty.

Type
Affaires courantes et commentaires/Current issues and Comments
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2003

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References

1 The relevant article of the 1998 Rome Statute of the ICC is Article 8(2)(b)(xix), which repeats the wording of the 1899 Hague Declaration. See also Report of the Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, “Draft Statute and Draft Final Act”, UN Doc. A/Conf.183/2/Add.1, 1998, p. 124; von Hebel, H. and Robinson, D., “Crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court,” in Lee, R. S. (ed.), The International Criminal Court: The Making of the Rome Statute - Issues, Negotiations, Results, Kluwer, The Hague, 1999, p. 116.Google Scholar

2 Davis, H., “Gunshot injuries in the late Greco-Turkish wars with remarks upon modern projectiles”, British Medical Journal, Vol. ii, 1897, pp. 17891793Google Scholar; Ogston, A., “The wounds produced by modern small bore bullets: The dumdum and the soft-nosed Mauser”, British Medical journal, Vol. ii, 1898, pp. 813815.Google Scholar

3 Ogston, A., “Continental criticism of English rifle bullets”, British Medical Journal, Vol. i, 1899, pp. 752757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Scott, J., The Proceedings of the Hague Peace Conferences, Oxford University Press, New York, 1920, pp. 286287.Google Scholar

5 Crazier, W., “Report to the United States' delegation to the First Hague Conférence on the proceedings of the First Commission and its Sub-Commission,” in Scott, J. B. (ed.), Instructions for Delegates of the United States to the Hague Conferences and Their Official Report, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1920, pp. 2935.Google Scholar

6 Coupland, R. et al. “Wound ballistics, surgery and the law of war, Trauma, Vol. 2., 2000, pp. 110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 An example is the 5·45 mm bullet fired by the Kalashnikov AK74.

8 Coupland, R., “Clinical and legal significance of fragmentation of bullets in relation to size of wounds: Retrospective analysis”, British Medical Journal, Vol. 319, 1999, pp. 403406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

9 Kneubuehl, B.“Small calibre weapon systems,” in Expert Meeting on Certain Weapon Systems and on Implementation Mechanisms in International Law, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, 1994, pp. 2639Google Scholar; Prokosch, E., “The Swiss draft Protocol on small-calibre weapon systems”, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 307, 1995, pp. 411425Google Scholar; Second Preparatory Committee for the Second Review Conférence of the 1980 CCW, “Protocol on the Use of Small Calibre Arms Systems (Draft)”, UN Doc. CCW/CONF.II/PC.2/WP.2, 4 April 2001.

10 See note 9.

11 “Draft Final Declaration of the Second Review Conférence of the 1980 CCW”, UN Doc. CCW/CONF.II/MC.I/1.p. 7.

12 Sellier, K. and Kneubuehl, B., Wound Ballistics, Amsterdam, Elsevier, 1994, pp. 7783.Google Scholar

13 See Ibid., pp. 56 and 342.

14 Ibid., pp. 341–342.

15 Coupland, R., “Abdominal wounds in war”, British Journal of Surgery, Vol. 83, 1996, pp. 15051511.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

16 See Sellier and Kneubuehl, op. cit. (note 12), p. 264.