Was there ever a war without war crimes?

Before The Hague Conventions in the 19th century there were no war crimes. Just wars. The only mechanism for restraint was fear of retaliation in kind. When people talk about bombing cities in WW2 ( which was not a war crime), they forget th... read more

Aside from the Christian Church, however, there was no international body which could have adjudicated Theodosius guility of a “war crime”, and even the establishment of widespread international custom in the Middle Ages didn’t establish a “law of war” under which it makes sense to speak of “war crimes”. read more

War crimes (Abuse of Remains) Though there are no known prosecutions, the occasional mutilation of Japanese remains were recognised to have been conducted by U.S. forces, declared to be atrocities, and explicitly forbidden by order of the U.S. Judge Advocate General in 1943–1944. read more

United States war crimes are the violations of the laws and customs of war of which the United States Armed Forces are accused of committing since the signing of the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. read more