Regulators in action

[M J D Brown]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matthew Pemble" <matthew@pemble.net>
To: <ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 10:15 PM
Subject: Re: Regulators in action


>A minor quibble:
>
>
>> One could also cite the evidently legal use of hollow point bullets 
>> in
>> the De Menenzes killing, a class of ammunition forbidden by 
>> Declaration
>> III of the 1899 Convention covering the "Use of Bullets Which Expand 
>> or
>> Flatten Easily in the Human Body".
>
>
> Not suggesting in the slightest that the de Menezes killing was 
> justified
> but the point of the Convention here is "weapons that maim rather than
> kill".  The 1899 Hague Convention, and the rest, and the Genva 
> Convention
> and Protocols apply to the military at war not to the exercise of 
> civil
> power:

Exactly so.  The preceding paragraph in my post clearly pointed out that 
the 1899 Hague Convention only applied to war between sovereign states 
and would not have covered the colonial policing instances of the 
previously cited examples of the use of chemical weapons.  Likewise, 
whilst the use of hollow point bullets is illegal in warfare, no such 
prohibition applies to police action.

So, what's the quibble?
>
> "The present Declaration is only binding for the Contracting Powers in 
> the
> case of a war between two or more of them."  Declaration III of the 
> Hague
> Convention of 1899.

See above!

Mike.