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The Protection of War Victims under Polish Legislation, up to the end of the 18th Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Andrzej Gorbiel
Andrzej Gorbiel*
Affiliation:
Doctor of Law Associate Professor, University of Lodz
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Extract

The international law of armed conflict (jus in bello) has undergone a long course of development. Its first traces date from antiquity, but we find a more substantial evolution during the latter part of the Middle Ages.

One of the remarkable elements in this development was the «Code of Chivalry». Although this was not a written document, being transmitted only by tradition, it possessed great authority. It prescribed that combat must take place in such a manner as not to compromise the honour of the knight and condemned unnecessary killing and killing by treachery. It required that the vanquished be treated with generosity and that assistance be rendered to the helpless and destitute.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 15 , Issue 171 , June 1975 , pp. 272 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1975

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References

page 272 note 1 Students of international law history have reported that an immediate effect was exercised by the humanitarian ideals of Islamic law on the principles upon which the code was based.

page 273 note 1 Nys, E., Les origines du droit international, Brussels-Paris, 1894, p. 205 et seq.Google Scholar

page 273 note 2 This sovereign, of the first Polish dynasty, owes his designation “the Great” to his major achievement in affirming and strengthening the power of the state after assuming the throne on the death of this father Wladislaus I (1305–1333), who had brought about the unification of the kingdom, previously divided into several principalities.

page 274 note 1 After citing the text of the edict by Casimir the Great, Wladislaus II Jagiello stated, “We therefore, by the grace of God King of Poland, renew and reaffirm the praiseworthy edict cited above, promulgated by our ancestor, the Most Serene Prince and Monsignor, by the Grace of God King of Poland…”

page 274 note 2 Under the title, as given in the original, “Statutum regis Kasimiri primi et per regem Kasimirum modernem confirmatum in Pyotrkow pro transeundis ad bellum”.

page 274 note 3 Entitled “Constitutiones sive mandata de profectione ad bellum facienda et ordine in castris servando articulatim scriptae ».

page 274 note 4 In the original: « Ne autem homines onerentur et indebite damnificentur in locis ubi statio facta fuerit… »

page 276 note 1 The introduction contained a further specific stipulation providing that the articles were to be applied not only within the military camp but also in any place to which the detachment might be “ordered or sent”.

page 276 note 2 The same article contained a somewhat curious provision forbidding the removal of honey from beehives on the ground that “honey should not be dealt with in the same manner as food, since the troops can get along without such delicacies”.

A further provision in the same article stated that “kitchen gardens must be regarded as the same as larders; anyone entering such a garden and taking anything whatsoever will have committed an offence like that of stealing from a larder.”

page 276 note 3 In addition, all the costs of reconstruction were to be charged against the offender's property.

page 279 note 1 Emerich de Vattel, International Law or Principles of Natural Law Applied to the Conduct and Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns, London, 1758,1. III, ch. VIII, Section 138.

page 280 note 1 Article 23 of this law contained an instruction to captains “to have readings, as often as necessary, of the articles concerning the duties of their units”.

page 280 note 2 It is interesting to note that articles in the decree of Augustus II, as well as those in the 1635 ordinance of the hetman Prince Krzysztof Radziwill, pfoovided that no one violating their terms could invoke drunkenness as an excuse or justification, and that under such circumstances the punishment would be more severe (Article XXIII).