Truce

An agreement between belligerent parties by which they mutually engage to forbear all acts of hostility against each other for some time, the war still continuing. At the present day there is no practical distinction between truces and armistices ( q. v.). Arts. 36-41 of the Convention Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land lay down the following rules: “An armistice suspends military operations by mutual agreement between the belligerent parties. If its duration is not defined, the belligerent parties may resume operations at any time, provided always that the enemy is warned within the time agreed upon, in accordance with the terms of the armistice. “An armistice may be general or local. The first suspends the military operations of the belligerent States everywhere; the second only between certain fractions of the belligerent armies and within a fixed radius. “An armistice must be notified officially and in good time to the competent authorities and to the troops. Hostilities are suspended immediately after the notification, or on the date fixed. “It rests with the contracting parties to settle, in the terms of the armistice, what communications may be held in the theatre of war with and between the populations. “Any serious violation of the armistice by one of the parties gives the other party the right of denouncing it, and even, in cases of urgency, of recommencing hostilities immediately. “A violation of the terms of the armistice by individuals acting on their own initiative only entitles the injured party to demand the punishment of the offenders, or, if necessary, compensation for the losses sustained.” During the continuance of a truce, either party may do within his own territory or the limits prescribed by the armistice, whatever he could do in time of peace, e. g. levy and march troops, collect provisions, receive reinforcements from his allies, or repair the fortifications of a place not actually besieged; but neither party can do what the continuance of hostilities would have prevented him from doing, e. g. repair fortifications of a besieged place; and all things, the possession of which was especially contested when the truce was made, must remain in their antecedent places; Hall, Ink Law 500; 2 Opp. §§ 231-240. TRUCE OF GOD (Law L. treuza Dei; Sax. treuge or trewa, from Germ, treu; Ft. tr€ve de Dieu). In the middle ages, a limitation of the right of private warfare introduced by the church. This truce provided that hostilities should cease on holidays, from Thursday evening to Sunday evening of each week, the whole season of Advent and Lent, cation. The protection of this truce was also extended constantly to certain places, as, churches, convents, hospitals, etc., and certain persons, as, clergymen, peasants in the held, crusaders, and, in general, all defenceless persons. It was first introduced into Acquitaine in 1041, and into England under Edward the Confessor.

1 Rob. Charles V. App. n. xxi.

Another authority places it in 1031, and in Limoges. See Orations from Homer to Mc Kinley, vol.

25, p. 1055.