§ 83. An armistice is the cessation of active hostilities for a period, agreed upon between belligerents. It must be agreed upon in writing, and duly ratified by the highest authorities of the contending parties.
§ 84. Armistices may be general, and valid for all points and lines of the belligerents, or special, that is, referring to certain troops or certain territories only.
Armistices may be concluded for a definite time or for an unsettled time, with a stipulated period, which must elapse between the notice given by either party that hostilities will be resumed and the actual resumption of hostilities; or they may be concluded for a definite time, and so much longer as may be found convenient for the belligerents, with the obligation of giving due notice of the resumption of hostilities, a fixed time previous to the actual resumption.
§ 85. The motives which induce the one or the other belligerent to conclude an armistice, whether it be expected to be preliminary for an ultimate treaty of peace, or to prepare during the armistice for a more vigorous prosecution of the war, does in no way affect the character of the armistice itself.
§ 86. Every armistice involves not only the idea of the cessation of actual hostility, that is of attacking the enemy, but also that the hostile armies or troops remain in status quo with reference to the position of the hostile armies opposite to or fronting one another.
Neither belligerent is allowed to extend his troops to the injury of the other, or to make any change in his front; but each belligerent in the open field, may do whatever he may deem advantageous for securing or fortifying himself in his position, if it can be done without extending or advancing his lines or posts, and he may receive additional troops, supplies, or ammunition. He may levy new troops during the armistice.
§ 87. The law of war is in full action during an armistice except only, as to fighting and hostile changes of the front; or if the armistice is a general one, as to the sending hostile expeditions to distant places.
§ 88. Armistices are binding for the belligerent governments from the day of the agreed commencement; but the officers of the armies are responsible from the day only when they receive official information of the conclusion of the armistice. If any injury results to one or the other party from this difference, which cannot be avoided in war, it belongs to the province of the belligerent governments to seek redress, and to provide for the remedy. Military officers having thus done the injury cannot be made responsible for the same in any way, nor do these injuries amount to cases requiring retaliation.
§ 89. Commanding officers have the right to conclude armistices extending to the district over which their command extends, but such armistice is subject to the ratification of the superior authority, and ceases so soon as it is made known that the armistice is not ratified, even if a certain time for the elapsing between giving notice of cessation and the resumption of hostilities should have been stipulated for.
§ 90. It is incumbent upon the contracting parties of an armistice, to stipulate what intercourse of persons or traffic between the inhabitants of the territories occupied by the hostile armies shall be allowed, if any.