The Practice of Asian States Implementing the Principle for Protection of Monuments and Works of Art before World War I

Abstract

A jus gentium principle for the protection of historic monuments and works of art in times of war started to be codified in the nineteenth century. As the first humanitarian instruments were regional, the 1863 Lieber Code was elaborated by the United States of America, the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field of 1864 drafted by European and American States, the Declaration of Brussels of 1874 signed by European countries, and the Oxford Manual of 1880 drafted and approved by Europeans and Americans lawyers; it was only with the Peace Convention at the Hague in 1899 that an universal forum to discuss humanitarian principles took place. At this conference, the principle for the protection of a certain property was unanimously accepted. This principle as well as others and the instruments that stipulated them were drafted and established by western countries. Despite its occidental origin, they were implemented on the Asian continent during pivotal conflicts in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that marked its history. Thus, a study of the acceptance by the Asian States of those humanitarian principles, since they did not take part in the process of drafting them, is important to understand the amplitude of the consensus of this principle. In the present article, the application of the principle for the protection of historic monuments and works of art in times of war in Asian conflicts before the First World War will be discussed. The practice in two conflicts, the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, will be analyzed.