Hague Rules of Air Warfare 1922-23 become binding international law

[Melvin Loh]

http://www.lawofwar.org/hague_rules_of_air_warfare.htm
http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList200/42F64C9A4212EA07C1256B66005C0BF1

These draft rules as proposed by the US post-WWI never came into force, but WI a separate treaty specific to the laws of aerial warfare had indeed been adopted (in a similar fashion as the Geneva Conventions govern the laws for land & sea warfare in separate treaties) ?

 

[Derek Jackson]

Would it have made any difference to the behavior of the British in Iraq and parts of India?

 

[Minchandre]

I'm sure that it would be just as influential as the earlier Hague Conventions.

 

[wormyguy]

The most important parts of this are that missiles are banned (exploding projectiles) and so is aerial bombardment of civilians. This will have significant effects on WWII and later 20th century conflicts.

 

[David S Poepoe]

I doubt much would be different until the Second World War. The aerial bombings during the Spanish Civil War may not occur, but I suspect the Japanese will still do as they wish in the Far East. With the 'blitzkrieg' type of war the Hague Rules will probably be tossed out altogether.

 

[CalBear]

Be something nice to read while you were in the bomb shelter.

Article XXII and Article XXIV make everything else window dressing. It could be forcefully argued that, with the exception of one major raid the U.S. made on Berlin the U.S. followed Article XXII to the letter, including the attacks on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the firebombing of Toyko.

The USAAF always stated it was going after military targets, and, generally, that was the case. The weapons, however, were not up to the precision of task required.

There is also the example of the rules laid out interwar regarding submarines. They lasted exactly as long as it took for the war to start. A weapon exists and it WILL be used.

 

[LeX]

Blitzkrieg is too essential to the German war plan, so they'll just break the treaty and after WW2, after the USA/UK find that bombing cities is pretty fun , everyone will forget the agreement existed.