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Lieber Code

The Lieber Code (General Orders No. 100, April 24, 1863) was the military law that governed the wartime conduct of the Union Army by defining and describing command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity; and the military responsibilities of the Union soldier fighting the American Civil War (1861–1865) against the Confederate States of America.[1]

The jurist Franz Lieber, LL.D., modernized the military law of the 1806 Articles of War into the Lieber Code (General Orders No. 100, April 24, 1863) for the Union Army to legitimately prosecute the civil war (1861–1865) begun by the Confederate States of America.

The General Orders No. 100: Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field (Lieber Code) were written by Franz Lieber, a German lawyer, political philosopher, and combat veteran of the Napoleonic Wars.

History

Background

At military age, the jurist Franz Lieber soldiered and fought in two wars, first for Prussia in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) and then in the Greek War of Independence (1821) from the Ottoman Empire (1299–1922). In his later career, Lieber was an academic at the College of South Carolina, in the Confederate States of America. Although not personally an abolitionist, Lieber opposed slavery in principle and in practice because he had witnessed the brutalities of black chattel slavery in the Confederacy, from which he departed for New York City in 1857.[2] In 1860, Prof. Lieber taught history and political science at the Columbia Law School, and publicly lectured about the "Laws and Usages of War" proposing that the laws of war correspond to a legitimate purpose for the war.[3]

In that time, Lieber had three sons who fought in the American Civil War (1861–1865): one in the Confederate Army, who was killed in the Battle of Eltham's Landing (May 7, 1862), and two in the Union Army. Later in 1862, in St. Louis, Missouri, while searching for the Union-soldier son wounded at the Battle of Fort Donelson (February 11–16, 1862), Lieber asked the help of his professional acquaintance Major General Henry W. Halleck, who had been a lawyer before the Civil War and was the author of International Law, or, Rules Regulating the Intercourse of States in Peace and War (1861), a book of political philosophy that emphasized legal correspondence between the casus belli and the purpose of the war.[3]

 
Gen. Henry W. Halleck commissioned the jurist Franz Lieber, LL.D., to modernize the military law of the 1806 Articles of War into General Orders No. 100 (April 24, 1863), the Lieber Code, for the Union Army to fight the guerrilla warfare of the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861–1865).

Legal dilemma

In fighting the Confederate Army, guerrillas, and civilian collaborators of the Confederacy, Union Army soldiers and officers faced ethical dilemmas of command responsibility concerning their summary execution in situ, per military custom, because the 1806 Articles of War did not address the management and disposition of prisoners of war and irregular fighters; nor the management and safe disposition of escaped black slaves – who were not to be repatriated to the Confederacy, per the Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves (March 13, 1862).[4]

To resolve the lack of military authority in the 1806 Articles of War, Commanding General of the Union Army Halleck commissioned Prof. Lieber to write military laws specific to the modern warfare of the American Civil War. For the Union Army's management and disposal of irregular fighters (guerrillas, spies, saboteurs, et al.), Lieber wrote the tract of military law Guerilla Parties Considered with Reference to the Laws and Usages of War (1862), which disallowed a soldier’s POW-status to Confederate guerrillas and irregular fighters with three functional disqualifications: (i) guerrillas do not wear the army uniform of a belligerent party to the war; (ii) guerrillas have no formal chain of command, like a regular army unit; and (iii) guerrillas cannot take prisoners, as could an army unit.[5]

At the end of 1862, Gen. Halleck and War Secretary Stanton commissioned Lieber to revise the military law of the 1806 Articles of War to include the practical considerations of military necessity and the humanitarian needs of civilian populations under military occupation. The editorial-revision committee, Maj. Gen. Ethan A. Hitchcock and Maj. Gen. George Cadwalader, Maj. Gen. George L. Hartsuff and Brig. Gen. John Henry Martindale, requested from Lieber comprehensive military laws to govern the Union Army’s prosecution of the Civil War. Gen. Halleck edited Lieber’s military law to concur with the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863), and, on April 24, 1863, President Lincoln promulgated General Orders No. 100, Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field, the Lieber Code.[3]

Legal provisions

For the Union Army's prosecution of the American Civil War, General Orders No. 100 (April 24, 1863) concern the practical particulars of martial law, military jurisdiction, and the treatment of Confederate irregular fighters, such as spies, deserters, and prisoners of war. In the field practice of military justice, the unit commander held authority for any prosecution under the Lieber Code, which command authority included the summary execution of Confederate prisoners of war and war-criminal soldiers of the Union Army.[6] In the context of the American Civil War, the Lieber Code explains the concepts of military necessity and humanitarian needs in articles 14, 15, and 16 of Section I:

  1. Military necessity, as understood by modern civilized nations, consists in the necessity of those measures which are indispensable for securing the ends of the war, and which are lawful according to the modern law and usages of war.
  2. Military necessity admits of all direct destruction of life or limb of armed enemies, and of other persons whose destruction is incidentally unavoidable in the armed contests of the war; it allows of the capturing of every armed enemy, and every enemy of importance to the hostile government, or of peculiar danger to the captor; it allows of all destruction of property, and obstruction of the ways and channels of traffic, travel, or communication, and of all withholding of sustenance or means of life from the enemy; of the appropriation of whatever an enemy's country affords necessary for the subsistence and safety of the Army, and of such deception as does not involve the breaking of good faith either positively pledged, regarding agreements entered into during the war, or supposed by the modern law of war to exist. Men who take up arms against one another in public war do not cease on this account to be moral beings, responsible to one another and to God.
  3. Military necessity does not admit of cruelty – that is, the infliction of suffering for the sake of suffering or for revenge, nor of maiming or wounding except in fight, nor of torture to extort confessions. It does not admit of the use of poison in any way, nor of the wanton devastation of a district. It admits of deception, but disclaims acts of perfidy; and, in general, military necessity does not include any act of hostility which makes the return to peace unnecessarily difficult.

In the late 19th century, the Lieber Code was the first modern codification of both customary international law and the law of war of Europe, and later was a basis for the Hague Convention of 1907, which restated and codified the practical particulars of that U.S. military law for application to international war among the signatory countries.[7]

Ethical warfare

As the modernization of the 1806 Articles of War (An Act for Establishing Rules and Articles for the Government of the Armies of the United States), the Lieber Code defines and describes what is a state of civil war, what is military occupation, and explains the politico-military purposes of war; explains what are the permissible and the impermissible military means an army can employ to fight and win a war; and defines and describes the nature of the nation-state, the nature of national sovereignty, and what is rebellion.[8]

The Code requires the humane, ethical treatment of civil populations under the military occupation of the Union Army, and forbids the policy of killing prisoners of war – except when taking prisoners endangers the capturing unit.[9] Moreover, concerning the ethics of fighting a civil war, Article 70, Section III stipulates that "the use of poison in any manner, be it to poison wells, or food, or arms, is wholly excluded from modern warfare. He that uses it puts himself out of the pale of the law and usages of war."[10]

The Code forbids torture as warfare; thus Article 44, Section II prohibits "all wanton violence committed against persons in the invaded country, all destruction of property not commanded by the authorized officer, all robbery, all pillage or sacking, even after taking a place by main force, all rape, wounding, maiming, or killing of such inhabitants, are prohibited under the penalty of death, or such other severe punishment as may seem adequate for the gravity of the offense. A soldier, officer, or private, in the act of committing such violence, and disobeying a superior ordering him to abstain from it, may be lawfully killed on the spot by such superior."[11][12]

Black prisoners of war

The Lieber Code military law concorded with the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and prohibited racist discrimination against black soldiers of the Union Army, specifically the Confederate Army denying them the rights and privileges of prisoners of war.[13] Those stipulations of U.S. military law specifically addressed the Confederate government's proclamation that the Confederate Army would treat captured black soldiers of the Union Army as escaped slaves, and not as prisoners of war, subject either to summary execution or to re-enslavement in the Confederacy; likewise, the white officers commanding the captured black soldiers would be denied prisoner-of-war status and would be arrested, tried, and condemned as common criminals for helping slaves escape human bondage.[14][15]

Hard measures

 
The Prussian military theoretician Carl von Clausewitz in uniform

Regarding a successful military occupation, the Lieber Code proposed a reciprocal relationship between the U.S. military authority and the Confederate civilian population, whose co-operation with the military authority would ensure considerations and good treatment for the civilian populace; that against guerrilla warfare and armed resistance to martial law the Union Army would subject the insubordinate enemy civilians to imprisonment and death.[16]

Moreover, to defend against the Confederate Army’s violations of the laws of war by way of irregular fighters, the Lieber Code allowed retaliation by musketry against Confederate POWs, and allowed the summary execution of captured enemy civilians (spies, saboteurs, francs-tireurs, guerrillas) caught attacking the Union Army and the United States.[17]

In the 19th century, the Lieber Code's legalized retaliation against prisoners of war derived from Lieber’s preference for short wars fought and won with decisive warfare, as proposed in the strategy and tactics of the Prussian military science of Carl von Clausewitz. To that end, the Lieber Code legitimized and justified aggressive war to expand the operational range of the Union Army’s prosecution of the civil war to conquer the Confederacy and free the slaves.[18][19]

Occupation of the Confederacy

 
Gen. Sherman at Federal Fort No. 7, after the Atlanta Campaign, September 1864.

For the conquest and military occupation of the Confederate States of America, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman based his Special Field Orders No. 120 (November 9, 1864) upon General Orders No. 100 (April 24, 1863) for the Union Army. To realize a peaceful military occupation of the state of Georgia, Special Field Order No. 120 stipulated that "in districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested no destruction of such property should be permitted; but, should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility."[20]

Moreover, the Lieber Code (1863) was the military law applied to the prosecution of war crimes and for equal prisoner-of-war exchanges between the Union Army and the Confederate Army, regardless of the skin color of the soldier.[21]

Legacy

International law

In the late 19th century and in the early 20th century, the parties to the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 used the Lieber Code (1863) as a basis for their legislation of the international law of war and the codification (definition and description) of what is a war crime and of what is a crime against humanity. In the mid 20th century, in the aftermath of the Second World War (1939–1945), at the war-crime Nuremberg Trials (November 1945 – October 1946) and at the Tokyo Trials (May 1946 – November 1948) the jurists determined that, by the year 1939, most governments in the world knew of the existence the law of war agreed in Switzerland, and thus most governments knew the legal responsibilities of the belligerent parties, of neutral countries, and of the refugees from the war.[22]

Philippine–American War

An abridged version of the Lieber Code was published in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (1899).[23] Lieber's son, Guido Norman Lieber, was the Judge Advocate General of the Army (1895–1901), during the Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) and Philippine–American War (February 4, 1899 – July 2, 1902). The Lieber Code was the military law then applied for courts martial of American military personnel, and for litigation against the Filipino natives and against the Filipino revolutionaries fighting the U.S. occupation of the Philippine Islands; e.g. the unlawful concentration camps of Gen. J. Franklin Bell and war-crime trial of Littleton Waller.

U.S. Law of War Manual

In 2015, the United States Department of Defense published its Law of War Manual.[24][25] It was updated and revised in May 2016.[26] The Manual explicitly refers to the Lieber Code, and the Lieber Code's influence on the Law of War Manual is apparent throughout.[27]

See also

References

  1. ^ Francis Lieber, LL.D. and revised by a Board of Officers (1863). Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field (1 ed.). New York: D.Van Nostrand. Retrieved 23 August 2015 – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  2. ^ Carnahan, Burrus M. (2010). Lincoln on Trial: Southern Civilians and the Law of War. United States: The University Press of Kentucky. p. 30.
  3. ^ a b c Beard, Rick. "The Lieber Codes". The New York Times, April 24, 2013.
  4. ^ Article 43, Section II, General Orders No. 100, Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field (24 IV 1863)
  5. ^ "Guerrilla Parties: Considered with Reference to the Laws and Usages of War". archive.org. 1862.
  6. ^ Article 77, Section III: Deserters—Prisoners of war—Hostages—Booty on the Battle-field, Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field (1863)
  7. ^ Vergerio, Claire (2022). "The Berlin and Hague Conferences". In Bukovanski, Mlada; Keene, Edward; Reus-Smit, Christian; Spanu, Maja (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of History and International Relations.
  8. ^ articles 149, 150, and 151, Section X: Insurrection—Civil War—Rebellion, Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field (1863)
  9. ^ Article 60, Section III, Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field (1863).
  10. ^ Article 70, Section III, Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field (1863).
  11. ^ Lieber, Francis, and revised by a board of officers (April 24, 1863). . United States War Department. Archived from the original on 2001-04-07. Retrieved 10 March 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ Kuo, Peggy (2002). "Prosecuting Crimes of Sexual Violence in an International Tribunal". Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law. 34: 306–307. [military commanders were] given the power to execute a soldier immediately if that person committed one of the prohibited acts.
  13. ^ Witt 2013.[page needed]
  14. ^ "The Lieber Codes". The New York Times. April 24, 2013.
  15. ^ "Lieber Code". Oxford Public International Law. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  16. ^ Birtle, Andrew J. (April 1997). "The U.S. Army's Pacification of Marinduque, Philippine Islands, April 1900 – April 1901". The Journal of Military History. Society for Military History. 61 (2): 255–282. doi:10.2307/2953967. JSTOR 2953967.
  17. ^ articles 27, 28, and 29, Section I: "Martial Law—Military Jurisdiction—Military Necessity—Retaliation", Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field (1863)
  18. ^ The Lieber Codes (April 24, 2013), The New York Times, p. 2.
  19. ^ "Lieber Code". Oxford Public International Law. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  20. ^ Sherman, William T. (9 November 1864). "Special Field Orders No. 120".
  21. ^ Witt 2013.[page needed]
  22. ^ Witt 2013.[page needed]
  23. ^ United States. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series 2. 5. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1899, pp. 671–682.
  24. ^ Office of General Counsel, Department of Defense (2015). Department of Defense Law War Manual (PDF). Washington, DC. pp. iii. Retrieved 14 April 2016.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  25. ^ Savage, Charlie (2016). "Pentagon Revamps Law of War Manual to Protect Journalists". The New York Times (published July 22, 2016). Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  26. ^ Office of General Counsel, Department of Defense (2015). Department of Defense Law War Manual. Washington, DC (published 2016). Retrieved 23 July 2016 – via DocumentCloud.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) or via U.S. Department of Defense
  27. ^ "Throwback Thursday: The Lieber Code". 23 July 2015.

Further reading

  • Carnahan, Burrus M. (2007). Act of Justice: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2463-6.
  • Carnahan, Burrus M. (2012). "The Civil War Origins of the Modern Rules of War: Francis Lieber and Lincoln's General Order No. 100". Northern Kentucky Law Review, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 661-697.
  • Mack, Charles R. and Lesesne, Henry H., eds. (2005). Francis Lieber and the Culture of the Mind. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1-57003-535-0.
  • Mancini, Matthew J. (May 2011). "Francis Lieber, Slavery, and the 'Genesis' of the Laws of War", The Journal of Southern History, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 325-348.
  • Witt, John Fabian (2013). Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-1-4165-7617-4.

External links

  • The full text of the Lieber Code at the Yale Avalon Project
  • Text of the 2015 US DoD Law of War Manual
  • Gesley, Jenny, "The 'Lieber Code' – the First Modern Codification of the Laws of War", Library of Congress Blogs, April 24, 2018.

lieber, code, general, orders, april, 1863, military, that, governed, wartime, conduct, union, army, defining, describing, command, responsibility, crimes, crimes, against, humanity, military, responsibilities, union, soldier, fighting, american, civil, 1861, . The Lieber Code General Orders No 100 April 24 1863 was the military law that governed the wartime conduct of the Union Army by defining and describing command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity and the military responsibilities of the Union soldier fighting the American Civil War 1861 1865 against the Confederate States of America 1 The jurist Franz Lieber LL D modernized the military law of the 1806 Articles of War into the Lieber Code General Orders No 100 April 24 1863 for the Union Army to legitimately prosecute the civil war 1861 1865 begun by the Confederate States of America The General Orders No 100 Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field Lieber Code were written by Franz Lieber a German lawyer political philosopher and combat veteran of the Napoleonic Wars Contents 1 History 1 1 Background 1 2 Legal dilemma 2 Legal provisions 2 1 Ethical warfare 2 2 Black prisoners of war 2 3 Hard measures 2 4 Occupation of the Confederacy 3 Legacy 3 1 International law 3 2 Philippine American War 3 3 U S Law of War Manual 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External linksHistory EditBackground Edit At military age the jurist Franz Lieber soldiered and fought in two wars first for Prussia in the Napoleonic Wars 1803 1815 and then in the Greek War of Independence 1821 from the Ottoman Empire 1299 1922 In his later career Lieber was an academic at the College of South Carolina in the Confederate States of America Although not personally an abolitionist Lieber opposed slavery in principle and in practice because he had witnessed the brutalities of black chattel slavery in the Confederacy from which he departed for New York City in 1857 2 In 1860 Prof Lieber taught history and political science at the Columbia Law School and publicly lectured about the Laws and Usages of War proposing that the laws of war correspond to a legitimate purpose for the war 3 In that time Lieber had three sons who fought in the American Civil War 1861 1865 one in the Confederate Army who was killed in the Battle of Eltham s Landing May 7 1862 and two in the Union Army Later in 1862 in St Louis Missouri while searching for the Union soldier son wounded at the Battle of Fort Donelson February 11 16 1862 Lieber asked the help of his professional acquaintance Major General Henry W Halleck who had been a lawyer before the Civil War and was the author of International Law or Rules Regulating the Intercourse of States in Peace and War 1861 a book of political philosophy that emphasized legal correspondence between the casus belli and the purpose of the war 3 Gen Henry W Halleck commissioned the jurist Franz Lieber LL D to modernize the military law of the 1806 Articles of War into General Orders No 100 April 24 1863 the Lieber Code for the Union Army to fight the guerrilla warfare of the Confederacy during the American Civil War 1861 1865 Legal dilemma Edit In fighting the Confederate Army guerrillas and civilian collaborators of the Confederacy Union Army soldiers and officers faced ethical dilemmas of command responsibility concerning their summary execution in situ per military custom because the 1806 Articles of War did not address the management and disposition of prisoners of war and irregular fighters nor the management and safe disposition of escaped black slaves who were not to be repatriated to the Confederacy per the Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves March 13 1862 4 To resolve the lack of military authority in the 1806 Articles of War Commanding General of the Union Army Halleck commissioned Prof Lieber to write military laws specific to the modern warfare of the American Civil War For the Union Army s management and disposal of irregular fighters guerrillas spies saboteurs et al Lieber wrote the tract of military law Guerilla Parties Considered with Reference to the Laws and Usages of War 1862 which disallowed a soldier s POW status to Confederate guerrillas and irregular fighters with three functional disqualifications i guerrillas do not wear the army uniform of a belligerent party to the war ii guerrillas have no formal chain of command like a regular army unit and iii guerrillas cannot take prisoners as could an army unit 5 At the end of 1862 Gen Halleck and War Secretary Stanton commissioned Lieber to revise the military law of the 1806 Articles of War to include the practical considerations of military necessity and the humanitarian needs of civilian populations under military occupation The editorial revision committee Maj Gen Ethan A Hitchcock and Maj Gen George Cadwalader Maj Gen George L Hartsuff and Brig Gen John Henry Martindale requested from Lieber comprehensive military laws to govern the Union Army s prosecution of the Civil War Gen Halleck edited Lieber s military law to concur with the Emancipation Proclamation January 1 1863 and on April 24 1863 President Lincoln promulgated General Orders No 100 Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field the Lieber Code 3 Legal provisions EditFor the Union Army s prosecution of the American Civil War General Orders No 100 April 24 1863 concern the practical particulars of martial law military jurisdiction and the treatment of Confederate irregular fighters such as spies deserters and prisoners of war In the field practice of military justice the unit commander held authority for any prosecution under the Lieber Code which command authority included the summary execution of Confederate prisoners of war and war criminal soldiers of the Union Army 6 In the context of the American Civil War the Lieber Code explains the concepts of military necessity and humanitarian needs in articles 14 15 and 16 of Section I Military necessity as understood by modern civilized nations consists in the necessity of those measures which are indispensable for securing the ends of the war and which are lawful according to the modern law and usages of war Military necessity admits of all direct destruction of life or limb of armed enemies and of other persons whose destruction is incidentally unavoidable in the armed contests of the war it allows of the capturing of every armed enemy and every enemy of importance to the hostile government or of peculiar danger to the captor it allows of all destruction of property and obstruction of the ways and channels of traffic travel or communication and of all withholding of sustenance or means of life from the enemy of the appropriation of whatever an enemy s country affords necessary for the subsistence and safety of the Army and of such deception as does not involve the breaking of good faith either positively pledged regarding agreements entered into during the war or supposed by the modern law of war to exist Men who take up arms against one another in public war do not cease on this account to be moral beings responsible to one another and to God Military necessity does not admit of cruelty that is the infliction of suffering for the sake of suffering or for revenge nor of maiming or wounding except in fight nor of torture to extort confessions It does not admit of the use of poison in any way nor of the wanton devastation of a district It admits of deception but disclaims acts of perfidy and in general military necessity does not include any act of hostility which makes the return to peace unnecessarily difficult In the late 19th century the Lieber Code was the first modern codification of both customary international law and the law of war of Europe and later was a basis for the Hague Convention of 1907 which restated and codified the practical particulars of that U S military law for application to international war among the signatory countries 7 Ethical warfare Edit As the modernization of the 1806 Articles of War An Act for Establishing Rules and Articles for the Government of the Armies of the United States the Lieber Code defines and describes what is a state of civil war what is military occupation and explains the politico military purposes of war explains what are the permissible and the impermissible military means an army can employ to fight and win a war and defines and describes the nature of the nation state the nature of national sovereignty and what is rebellion 8 The Code requires the humane ethical treatment of civil populations under the military occupation of the Union Army and forbids the policy of killing prisoners of war except when taking prisoners endangers the capturing unit 9 Moreover concerning the ethics of fighting a civil war Article 70 Section III stipulates that the use of poison in any manner be it to poison wells or food or arms is wholly excluded from modern warfare He that uses it puts himself out of the pale of the law and usages of war 10 The Code forbids torture as warfare thus Article 44 Section II prohibits all wanton violence committed against persons in the invaded country all destruction of property not commanded by the authorized officer all robbery all pillage or sacking even after taking a place by main force all rape wounding maiming or killing of such inhabitants are prohibited under the penalty of death or such other severe punishment as may seem adequate for the gravity of the offense A soldier officer or private in the act of committing such violence and disobeying a superior ordering him to abstain from it may be lawfully killed on the spot by such superior 11 12 Black prisoners of war Edit The Lieber Code military law concorded with the Emancipation Proclamation 1863 and prohibited racist discrimination against black soldiers of the Union Army specifically the Confederate Army denying them the rights and privileges of prisoners of war 13 Those stipulations of U S military law specifically addressed the Confederate government s proclamation that the Confederate Army would treat captured black soldiers of the Union Army as escaped slaves and not as prisoners of war subject either to summary execution or to re enslavement in the Confederacy likewise the white officers commanding the captured black soldiers would be denied prisoner of war status and would be arrested tried and condemned as common criminals for helping slaves escape human bondage 14 15 Hard measures Edit The Prussian military theoretician Carl von Clausewitz in uniformRegarding a successful military occupation the Lieber Code proposed a reciprocal relationship between the U S military authority and the Confederate civilian population whose co operation with the military authority would ensure considerations and good treatment for the civilian populace that against guerrilla warfare and armed resistance to martial law the Union Army would subject the insubordinate enemy civilians to imprisonment and death 16 Moreover to defend against the Confederate Army s violations of the laws of war by way of irregular fighters the Lieber Code allowed retaliation by musketry against Confederate POWs and allowed the summary execution of captured enemy civilians spies saboteurs francs tireurs guerrillas caught attacking the Union Army and the United States 17 In the 19th century the Lieber Code s legalized retaliation against prisoners of war derived from Lieber s preference for short wars fought and won with decisive warfare as proposed in the strategy and tactics of the Prussian military science of Carl von Clausewitz To that end the Lieber Code legitimized and justified aggressive war to expand the operational range of the Union Army s prosecution of the civil war to conquer the Confederacy and free the slaves 18 19 Occupation of the Confederacy Edit Gen Sherman at Federal Fort No 7 after the Atlanta Campaign September 1864 For the conquest and military occupation of the Confederate States of America Gen William Tecumseh Sherman based his Special Field Orders No 120 November 9 1864 upon General Orders No 100 April 24 1863 for the Union Army To realize a peaceful military occupation of the state of Georgia Special Field Order No 120 stipulated that in districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested no destruction of such property should be permitted but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march or should the inhabitants burn bridges obstruct roads or otherwise manifest local hostility then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility 20 Moreover the Lieber Code 1863 was the military law applied to the prosecution of war crimes and for equal prisoner of war exchanges between the Union Army and the Confederate Army regardless of the skin color of the soldier 21 Legacy EditInternational law Edit In the late 19th century and in the early 20th century the parties to the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 used the Lieber Code 1863 as a basis for their legislation of the international law of war and the codification definition and description of what is a war crime and of what is a crime against humanity In the mid 20th century in the aftermath of the Second World War 1939 1945 at the war crime Nuremberg Trials November 1945 October 1946 and at the Tokyo Trials May 1946 November 1948 the jurists determined that by the year 1939 most governments in the world knew of the existence the law of war agreed in Switzerland and thus most governments knew the legal responsibilities of the belligerent parties of neutral countries and of the refugees from the war 22 Philippine American War Edit An abridged version of the Lieber Code was published in The War of the Rebellion A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies 1899 23 Lieber s son Guido Norman Lieber was the Judge Advocate General of the Army 1895 1901 during the Spanish American War April 21 August 13 1898 and Philippine American War February 4 1899 July 2 1902 The Lieber Code was the military law then applied for courts martial of American military personnel and for litigation against the Filipino natives and against the Filipino revolutionaries fighting the U S occupation of the Philippine Islands e g the unlawful concentration camps of Gen J Franklin Bell and war crime trial of Littleton Waller U S Law of War Manual Edit In 2015 the United States Department of Defense published its Law of War Manual 24 25 It was updated and revised in May 2016 26 The Manual explicitly refers to the Lieber Code and the Lieber Code s influence on the Law of War Manual is apparent throughout 27 See also EditCommand responsibility International criminal lawReferences Edit Francis Lieber LL D and revised by a Board of Officers 1863 Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field 1 ed New York D Van Nostrand Retrieved 23 August 2015 via Internet Archive a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint uses authors parameter link Carnahan Burrus M 2010 Lincoln on Trial Southern Civilians and the Law of War United States The University Press of Kentucky p 30 a b c Beard Rick The Lieber Codes The New York Times April 24 2013 Article 43 Section II General Orders No 100 Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field 24 IV 1863 Guerrilla Parties Considered with Reference to the Laws and Usages of War archive org 1862 Article 77 Section III Deserters Prisoners of war Hostages Booty on the Battle field Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field 1863 Vergerio Claire 2022 The Berlin and Hague Conferences In Bukovanski Mlada Keene Edward Reus Smit Christian Spanu Maja eds The Oxford Handbook of History and International Relations articles 149 150 and 151 Section X Insurrection Civil War Rebellion Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field 1863 Article 60 Section III Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field 1863 Article 70 Section III Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field 1863 Lieber Francis and revised by a board of officers April 24 1863 The Lieber Code of 1863 United States War Department Archived from the original on 2001 04 07 Retrieved 10 March 2020 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Kuo Peggy 2002 Prosecuting Crimes of Sexual Violence in an International Tribunal Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 34 306 307 military commanders were given the power to execute a soldier immediately if that person committed one of the prohibited acts Witt 2013 page needed The Lieber Codes The New York Times April 24 2013 Lieber Code Oxford Public International Law Retrieved November 9 2017 Birtle Andrew J April 1997 The U S Army s Pacification of Marinduque Philippine Islands April 1900 April 1901 The Journal of Military History Society for Military History 61 2 255 282 doi 10 2307 2953967 JSTOR 2953967 articles 27 28 and 29 Section I Martial Law Military Jurisdiction Military Necessity Retaliation Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field 1863 The Lieber Codes April 24 2013 The New York Times p 2 Lieber Code Oxford Public International Law Retrieved November 9 2017 Sherman William T 9 November 1864 Special Field Orders No 120 Witt 2013 page needed Witt 2013 page needed United States War Department The War of the Rebellion A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies Series 2 5 Washington DC Government Printing Office 1899 pp 671 682 Office of General Counsel Department of Defense 2015 Department of Defense Law War Manual PDF Washington DC pp iii Retrieved 14 April 2016 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Savage Charlie 2016 Pentagon Revamps Law of War Manual to Protect Journalists The New York Times published July 22 2016 Retrieved July 23 2016 Office of General Counsel Department of Defense 2015 Department of Defense Law War Manual Washington DC published 2016 Retrieved 23 July 2016 via DocumentCloud a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link or via U S Department of Defense Throwback Thursday The Lieber Code 23 July 2015 Further reading EditCarnahan Burrus M 2007 Act of Justice Lincoln s Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War Lexington KY The University Press of Kentucky ISBN 978 0 8131 2463 6 Carnahan Burrus M 2012 The Civil War Origins of the Modern Rules of War Francis Lieber and Lincoln s General Order No 100 Northern Kentucky Law Review vol 39 no 4 pp 661 697 Mack Charles R and Lesesne Henry H eds 2005 Francis Lieber and the Culture of the Mind Columbia South Carolina University of South Carolina Press ISBN 1 57003 535 0 Mancini Matthew J May 2011 Francis Lieber Slavery and the Genesis of the Laws of War The Journal of Southern History vol 77 no 2 pp 325 348 Witt John Fabian 2013 Lincoln s Code The Laws of War in American History New York Free Press ISBN 978 1 4165 7617 4 External links Edit Wikisource has original text related to this article Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field The full text of the Lieber Code The full text of the Lieber Code at the Yale Avalon Project Text of the 2015 US DoD Law of War Manual Gesley Jenny The Lieber Code the First Modern Codification of the Laws of War Library of Congress Blogs April 24 2018 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Lieber Code amp oldid 1169028581, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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