S da ja seadus

[War and Law] This article is a translation of the second chapter of Friedrich Fromhold Martens ￠ € La Paix et la Guerre (1901). The first chapter was published in 2 Acta Societatis Martensis (2006) 3-25. The text was first translated into Estonian in 1921 under the supervision of Major-General Nikolai Reek and published in an annex to the magazine S dur (Soldier). Here the same translation appears in a slightly edited form: the language was modernised where necessary for comprehension, and improvements were made to references and citations. In this historical text, Martens argues, in his distinctly enjoyable style, that war between civilised nations is certainly governed by laws and customs that have developed in practice. Boldly denouncing the opposite views of von Hartmann and Rüstow, he argues that both facts and the opinion of learned military specialists confirm that codification and enforcement of these laws is in the best interests of belligerent states. Furthermore, he defends the need to codify the laws and customs of war and outlines the deficiency of the views of certain writers in the field of international law (such as Sir Travers Twiss, Holland and Beach-Lawrence) to the contrary.