16. Inter arma leges silent.
Cicero, Pro Milone, IV. 10.
This maxim has a double application: (1) As between the state and its external enemies, the laws are absolutely silent. No alien enemy has any claim to the protection of the laws or of the courts of justice. He is destitute of any legal standing before the law, and the government may do as it pleases with him and his. (2) Even as regards the rights of subjects and citizens, the law may be put to silence by necessity in times of civil disturbance. Necessitas non habet legem. Extrajudicial force may lawfully supersede the ordinary process and course of law, whenever it is needed for the protection of the state and the public order against illegal violence. See § 36.