War

War is a hostile contest with arms between two or more states or communities claiming sovereign rights. Field, Int. Code, p.

467.

Classification: (1) War is either offensive, defensive, or auxiliary. The distinction between offensive and defensive war has been based on the provocation leading to the war, but this test is difficult of application. The most practical test is as to the belligerent in whose territory the war is waged.

See Glenn, Int. Law, 169.

An auxiliary war is one undertaken by a third nation in support of a belligerent. (2) War is either public or private, accordingly as it has or has not the sanction of the sovereign power of the state. A insurrectionary war in which one par- (3) War is either perfect (sometimes called "solemn"), or imperfect (sometimes called "unsolemn"), accordingly as it has been declared in due form by the sovereign power, or is limited as respects places or persons. 25 Wend. (N. Y.) 483. (4) War is either foreign or civil, according as it is between independent states, or between a state, as such, and a party or section of its own subjects. Civil war is distinguished from a mere treasonable insurrection only by degree, "by the number, power, and organization of the persons who originate and carry it on."

2 Black (U. S.) 635.