Introduction

Since ancient times armies have occupied and acquired additional territory by means of warfare. Until the 19th century, military occupation of an adversary’s territory resulted in the transfer of property and sovereignty to the occupying power. The new sovereign could quite freely dispose of the territory and treat its inhabitants as it wished. The nature of belligerent occupation, as we know it today, developed largely in the period between the Lieber Code of 1863 and the Hague Regulations o..