The Laws of Yesterday’s Wars

From Indigenous Australians to the American Civil War

Series: 

This book offers a culture-by-culture account of various unique restrictions placed on warfare over time, in a bid to demonstrate the underlying humanity often accompanying the horrors of war. It offers the first systematic exploration of Indigenous Australian laws of war, relaying decades of experience in communities. Containing essays by a range of laws of war academics and practitioners, this volume is a starting point in a new debate on the question: how international is international humanitarian law?
See also its companion volume The Laws of Yesterday's Wars 2: From Ancient India to East Africa

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Samuel White has served as a Royal Australian Infantry Corps and Australian Army Legal Corps officer. He has published many articles on international and domestic military law and international humanitarian law.
This well written and researched book is a timely and important contribution to the literature of international humanitarian law, and our understanding of the fundamental importance of its principles for humanity from the dawn of history.
- Matthew E.K. Neuhaus, Australian Ambassador to the Netherlands, in The Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals, Vol. 22, No. 1 (2023)
Foreword

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations

Notes on Contributors

Introduction
  Samuel White

1 Indigenous Australians
  Ray Kerkhove & Samuel White

2 Māori Warfare and the New Zealand Wars – Atrocities, Chivalry and Apologies
  Alexander Gillespie

3 The Aztecs
  Samuel White & Ray Kerkhove

4 The Late Middle Ages
  Samuel White

5 The Renaissance
  Kyle Walker

6 The Viking Age
  Andrew D. Butler

7 Pirates and Privateers in Elizabethan England
  Andrew Read

8 Code of Necessity – Lawfare During the United States Civil War
  Christopher M. Bailey

Conclusion
  Samuel White

Index

All interested in the history of war, the history of the law of armed conflict, and anyone concerned with comparative historical restrictions and customs.
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