What is the law of occupation?
The law of belligerent occupation is perhaps one of the oldest and today the most developed branch of international humanitarian law (IHL). It is codified in particular in Arts. 42-56 of the 1907 Hague Regulations and in Arts. 47-78 of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention , which are generally accepted as customary international law. From the point of view of IHL, civilians in occupied territories deserve and need particularly detailed rules of protection. Living on their own territory, they come into contact with the foreign armed forces independently of their will, merely because of the armed conflict in which those forces obtains territorial control over the place where civilians live. The law of occupation is applicable independently of the motives or legality of the military campaign. (See HPCR policy brief On the Legality of War vs. the Laws of Armed Conflict.) The civilians have no obligation of loyalty towards the occupying power, regardless of the motives of the invading forces.
