6 The Law of Occupation in the Wake of World War II

The occupations during World War II signify a new phase in the law of occupation. The new phase is characterized not by occupants’ adaptation of the 1907 Hague law to modern exigencies, but rather by most occupants’ disregard of this law. Ultimately, this phase culminates with the introduction of the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (GCIV), which reformulated several aspects of the law of occupation in response to the experience of the recent war. On the eve of World War II, the 1907 Hague Regulations (“Hague...