Laws_of_War_on_Land_(Oxford_1880)
Laws of War on Land (Oxford 1880)
1880 attempt at codifying laws of warfare, influential on later Hague & Geneva Conventions
The Laws of War on Land, often known as the Oxford Manual, was an early effort to publish a comprehensive treatise on the Law of War. It was principally drafted by Gustave Moynier, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross and founder of the Institute of International Law, and unanimously approved by the board of that institute at a conference at Oxford on September 9, 1880. The manual itself was not an international treaty with any binding legal status, and Argentina and Serbia were the only countries to adopt it as national law.[1]: 30, note 58 Nevertheless, its philosophical and jurisprudential stances remained influential in European popular discourse (if not among governments or militaries),[2] and most of its provisions were eventually formally adopted into the Hague and Geneva Conventions.[3] The 1904 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Institute largely on the basis of this contribution "to make the laws of war more humane".[4]