BELLIGERENCY

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 699 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BEC-BER

BELLIGERENCY , the state of carrying on war (Lat. bellum, war, and gerere, to wage) in accordance with the law of nations. Insurgents are not as such excluded from recognition as belligerents, and, even where not recognized as belligerents by the government against which they have rebelled, they may be so recognized by a neutral state, as in the

case

CASE
CASE, JOHN (d. 1600)

of the American Civil War, when the Southern states were recognized as belligerents by

Great

GREAT

Britain, though regarded as rebels by the Northern states. The recognition by a neutral state of belligerency does not, however, imply recognition of independent political existence. The regulations annexed to the Hague Convention, relating to the

laws

LAWS

and customs of war (29th of July 1899), contain a

section

SECTION
SECTION (Lat. sectio, cutting, secare, to cut)

entitled " Belligerents " which is divided into three chapters, dealing respectively with (i.) The Qualifications of Belligerents; (ii.) Prisoners of War; (iii.) The Sick and Wounded. To entitle troops to the

special

SPECIAL

privileges attaching to belligerency, chapter i. provides that all

regular

REGULAR

, militia or volunteer forces shall alike be commanded by persons responsible for the acts of their men, that all such shall carry distinctive emblems, recognizable at a distance, that arms shall be carried openly and operations conducted in accordance with the usages of war observed among civilized mankind. It provides, nevertheless, for the emergency of the

population

POPULATION (Lat. populus,
people
- PEOPLE
; populare, to populate)

of a territory, which has not already been occupied by the invader, spontaneously taking up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to comply with the above requirements; they, too, are to be treated as belligerents " if they respect the

laws

LAWS

and customs of war." In naval war, privateering having been, finally abolished as among the parties to it by the declaration of Paris, a

privateer

PRIVATEER

is not entitled, as between such parties, to the rights of belligerency. As between states, one of whom is not a party to the Declaration, the right to grant letters of marque would remain intact for both parties, and the

privateer

PRIVATEER

, as between them, would be a belligerent; as regards neutrals, the situation would be complicated (see PRIVATEER). On prisoners of war and sick and wounded, see WAR. (T. BA.)

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