As regards its duration, an armistice can be concluded either for a determined or an undetermined period, and with or without a time for giving notice. If no fixed period is agreed upon, then hostilities can be recommenced at any time. This, however, is to be made known to the enemy punctually, so that the resumption does not represent a surprise. If a fixed time is agreed on, then hostilities can be recommenced the very moment it expires, and without any previous notification. The commencement of an armistice is, in the absence of an express agreement fixing another time, to date from the moment of its conclusion; the armistice expires at dawn of the day to which it extends. Thus an armistice made to last until January 1st comes to an end on the last hour of December 31st, and a shorter armistice with the conclusion of the number of hours agreed upon; thus, for example, an armistice concluded on May 1st at 6 P.M. for 48 hours last until May 3rd at 6 P.M.
PART II
USAGES OF WAR IN REGARD TO ENEMY TERRITORY AND ITS INHABITANTS
CHAPTER I
RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE INHABITANTS
The Civil Population is not to be regarded as an enemy.
It has already been shown in the introduction that war concerns not merely the active elements, but that also the passive elements are involved in the common suffering, i.e., the inhabitants of the occupied territory who do not belong to the army. Opinions as to the relations between these peaceable inhabitants of the occupied territory and the army in hostile possession have fundamentally altered in the course of the last century. Whereas in earlier times the devastation of the enemy’s territory, the destruction of property, and, in some cases indeed, the carrying away of the inhabitants into bondage or captivity, were regarded as a quite natural consequence of the state of war, and whereas in later times milder treatment of the inhabitants took place although destruction and annihilation as a military resource still continued to be entertained, and the right of plundering the private property of the inhabitants remained completely unlimited—to-day, the universally prevalent idea is that the inhabitants of the enemy’s territory are no longer to be regarded, generally speaking, as enemies. It will be admitted, as a matter of law, that the population is, in the exceptional circumstances of war, subjected to the limitations, burdens, and measures of compulsion conditioned by it, and owes obedience for the time being to the power de facto, but may continue to exist otherwise undisturbed and protected as in time of peace by the course of law.
They must not be molested.
It follows from all this, as a matter of right, that, as regards the personal position of the inhabitants of the occupied territory, neither in life or in limb, in honor or in freedom, are they to be injured, and that every unlawful killing; every bodily injury, due to fraud or negligence; every insult; every disturbance of domestic peace; every attack on family, honor, and morality and, generally, every unlawful and outrageous attack or act of violence, are just as strictly punishable as though they had been committed against the inhabitants of one’s own land. There follows, also, as a right of the inhabitants of the enemy territory, that the invading army can only limit their personal independence in so far as the necessity of war unconditionally demands it, and that any infliction that needlessly goes beyond this is to be avoided.
Their duty.