Five Brothers and a War

Den Haag

holland

The Vredespaleis , (“Peace Palace”) home of the International Court of Justice, where disputes between nations are meant to be adjudicated. It was authorized by the 1899 Hague Conference, which set out to establish rules of war, inspired by those first issued by American President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to his Union Army. The document issued by Lincoln was called the “Lieber Code” after the German-American legal scholar who was responsible for the drafting of rules covering such wide-ranging areas as the wartime protection of civilians and civilian property, the punishment of transgression, the handling of deserters, prisoners of war, spies and hostages, pillaging, partisans, truces, prisoner exchanges, parole of former rebel troops, the conditions of any armistice, respect for human life, assassination and murder of soldiers or citizens in hostile territory, and finally the status of individuals engaged in a state of civil war against the government. The building was largely paid for by American billionaire Andrew Carnegie, who contributed $1.5 million, although all nations contributed something toward the effort. In an ironic twist of fate, it opened on August 28, 1913, exactly eleven months before the beginning of World War I— July 28, 1914.

Five Brothers and a War

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