BELLIGERENT, a nation or a large sec tion of a nation engaged in carrying on war. On the outbreak of war between sovereign powers the rights and duties of the warring nations in regard to each other and in regard to neutral powers are clearly defined by Inter national law. The first general stipulation is that neutral.powers be formally notified of the existence of a state of war. In regard to the rights and duties of belligerents one to another, international law and custom in modern times demand that non-combatants be protected in their persons and property, and that barbarous weapons or methods be avoided. When hostile territory is occupied, the invading army may require the submission of the inhabitants and may exercise in such territory all the powers previously exercised by the ousted government. The trade of neutrals is to be relieved as far as possible of all inconven iences. An insurgent state cannot claim the recognition of belligerency from a neutral state as a matter of right and for the latter such recognition is merely a matter of ex pediency. In the contest between the Federals and Confederates in 1861-65 the latter section of the American people, at the very commence ment of the struggle, claimed the privileges of belligerents. Their demand was promptly
acceded to by the British and French govern ments, at which the Federal authorities took umbrage, contending that the recognition had been premature, while the British maintained that it could not have been refused or delayed. The grant of belligerent rights to insurgents imposes certain obligations on the latter, such as the observance of the rules of international law both in regard to their opponents and to neutrals. Such a grant also shifts the re sponsibility for damages to neutrals from the sovereign state to the insurgent party. Its ad vantages to the latter lie in the moral support gained from recognition by neutrals, giving it the right to negotiate loans and placing its commanders and their troops under the pro tection of the laws of war. See BELLIGERENCY ; BLOCKADE ; INTERNATIONAL LAW ; NEUTRALITY ; and consult Snow, (Manual of International Law) (2d ed., Washington 1898), and Wheaton, 'Elements of International Law' (8th ed., Bos ton 1866).