Table of contents:
Element:
A. Legal source/authority and evidence:
Article 35, Additional Protocol I:
"Article 35 - Basic rules
1. In any armed conflict, the right of the Parties to the conflict to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited.
2. It is prohibited to employ weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering."
Article 23, Hague Regulations 1907:
"Art. 23. In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden
(a) To employ poison or poisoned weapons;
(b) To kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army;
(c) To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms, or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion;
(d) To declare that no quarter will be given;
(e) To employ arms, projectiles, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering;"
B. [Evidentiary comment:]
P.2. Evidence of bullets that expand or flatten easily in the human body.
P.2.1. Evidence of bullets not completely surrounded by hard casing.
A. Legal source/authority and evidence:
M. Cottier, War crimes para. 2(b)" in Otto Triffterer, ed, Commentary on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1999), article 8, marginal note 184:
"Bullets which are not completely surrounded by hard casing or which are notched with incisions, tend to flatten and expand when impacting upon the human body, and cause significantly more serious injury than would an equivalent standard bullet. The typical type of such a bullet has been called a "dum-dum" bullet. The provision proscribes employing bullets with the described effect and equally applies to standard bullets which have been "converted" by combatants on the battlefield, name;y by piercing them with incisions, as well as to bullets which expand or flatten in the human body because of the way in which they are manufactured."
B. [Evidentiary comment:]
P.2.2. Evidence of bullets notched with incisions.
A. Legal source/authority and evidence:
M. Cottier, in O. Triffterer (ed.) "Commentary on the Rome Statute" (1999), article 8, margin No. 184:
"Bullets which are not completely surrounded by hard casing or which are notched with incisions, tend to flatten and expand when impacting upon the human body, and cause significantly more serious injury than would an equivalent standard bullet. The typical type of such a bullet has been called a "dum-dum" bullet. The provision proscribes employing bullets with the described effect and equally applies to standard bullets which have been "converted" by combatants on the battlefield, name;y by piercing them with incisions, as well as to bullets which expand or flatten in the human body because of the way in which they are manufactured."
B. [Evidentiary comment:]
P.2.3. Evidence of bullets that explode on impact.
A. Legal source/authority and evidence:
Knut Dörmann, "Elements of War Crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court" Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 296:
"Analysing the legality of a particular bullet that would explode on impact in a human body if it meets with any degree of resistance, such as personnel equipment, an armoured vest, or bone, the US Department of the Army concluded that a bullet that will explode on impact with the human body would be prohibited by the law of war from the use for antipersonnel purposes.3
"3. Memorandum for US Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, 19 February 1998."
B.[Evidentiary comment:]
