Questions of the laws and customs of war in the works of representatives of the Kiev school of international law of the XIX – early XX centuries)

Abstract

This article explores the contribution of scientists, who’s scientific and teaching activities were associated with the Department of International Law of the University of St. Volodymyr in Kiev, in the development of problems of the law of war. In the XIX century began the process of codification of laws and customs of war, which is carried out in two directions – the protection of war victims (i.e., the Geneva law, which began with the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field 1864) and legal regulation of limits on methods and means of waging war (i.e. the Hague Law, which began with documents such as the Liber Code 1863, the St. Petersburg Declaration Renouncing the Use, in Time of War, of Explosive Projectiles Under 400 Grammes Weight 1868 and the draft Brussels Declaration Concerning the Laws and Customs of War 1874), which eventually led to adoption of the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. It is not surprising, therefore, that the international legal doctrine of the nineteenth century in many countries has paid considerable attention to the study of issues related to the laws and customs of war. International lawyers, whose scientific activity was connected with St. Volodymyr's University in Kyiv, were no exception. All of them have published works on the general question of the relationship between war and international law, or the legal regulation of limits on methods and means of waging war and protecting the victims of war. This topic also dominates in their dissertation research, in particular the dissertation pro venia legendi by R. Baziner, master's dissertation by N. Rennenkampf, master's and doctoral dissertations by O. Eikhel’man and P Bogaevskii. Among the topics that were the subject of scientific research of pre-revolutionary Kyiv international lawyers can be identified general issues of the relationship between war and international law (V. Nezabitovskii), the law of naval warfare, in particular the inviolability of private property during naval war (N. Rennenkampf, R. Baziner), legal status of prisoners of war (O. Eichelman), rights and responsibilities of the occupying state (O. Eikhel’man), legal issues of the Red Cross (P. Bogaevskii), legal content and history of adoption Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field of August 22, 1864 (P. Bogaevskii).