reprisal
American Heritage Dictionary:
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re·pri·sal
(rĭ-prī'zəl) 
n.
n.
- Retaliation for an injury with the intent of inflicting at least as much injury in return.
- Forcible seizure of an enemy's goods or subjects in retaliation for injuries inflicted.
- The practice of using political or military force without actually resorting to war.
[Middle English reprisail, from Old French reprisaille, from Old Italian ripresaglia, from ripreso, past participle of riprendere, to take back, from Latin reprehendere, reprēndere, to take hold of. See reprehend.]
Roget's Thesaurus:
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reprisal
noun
- The act of retaliating: counteraction, counterattack, counterblow, reciprocation, requital, retaliation, retribution, revenge, tit for tat, vengeance. Idioms: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, like for like, measure for measure. See attack/defend, forgiveness/vindictiveness.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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reprisal
reprisal, in international law, the forcible taking, in time of peace, by one country of the property or territory belonging to another country or to the citizens of the other country, to be held as a pledge or as redress in order to satisfy a claim. A reprisal, technically, is not an act of war, because it is solely in response to conduct that violated international law. When, however, reprisals are taken against a power of equal strength, they may provoke war. The Covenant of the League of Nations and the Charter of the United Nations classify reprisals as acts endangering peace. Modern international law no longer recognizes private reprisal. This was the right of a private person to satisfy a legal claim against an alien by seizing property belonging to a person of the alien's nationality. The authority was contained in a letter of reprisal issued by the sovereign. Private reprisals all but disappeared by 1800, as the central authority of states grew stronger.
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An act by which a nation seeks, short of war, to redress a wrong committed against it by another nation. Boycotts and blockades are common forms of reprisal.
Word Tutor:
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reprisal
IN BRIEF: Recurrence, renewal or resumption of an action. Also: Any infliction or act by way of retaliation on an enemy.
Are there allegations of reprisal by the corporation?
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categories related to 'reprisal'
- Security and Defense - reprisal: retaliatory force short of war
See crossword solutions for the clue Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Reprisal
For the novel by F. Paul Wilson, see Reprisal (novel).
- Not to be confused with a reprise, or with a reappraisal.
A reprisal is a limited and deliberate violation of international law to punish another sovereign state that has already broken them.[1] Reprisals in the laws of war are extremely limited, as they commonly breached the rights of civilians, an action outlawed by the Geneva Conventions. It is not to be confused with retorsions, as these constitute unfriendly acts generally permitted by international law.
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Contents
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Etymology
The word came from French, where it originally meant "act of taking back", for example, raiding back the equivalent of cattle lost to an enemy raid.
International law
Reprisals refer to acts which are illegal if taken alone, but become legal when adopted by one state in retaliation for the commission of an earlier illegal act by another state.[citation needed] Counter-reprisals are generally not allowed.
An example of reprisal is the Naulilaa dispute between Portugal and Germany in October 1914. After three Germans were mistakenly killed in Naulilaa on the border of the Portuguese colony of Angola (in a manner that did not violate international law),[2] Germany carried out a military raid on Naulilaa, destroying property in retaliation. A claim for compensation was brought by Portugal. The tribunal emphasized that before reprisals could be legally undertaken, a number of conditions had to be satisfied:
- There had to be a previous act by the other party that violated international law.
- Reprisals had to be preceded by an unsatisfied demand for reparation or compliance with the violated international law.
- There must be proportionality between the offence and reprisal.
The German claim that it had acted lawfully was rejected on all three grounds.[3]
After 1945, as a result of the general prohibition on use of force imposed by Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, armed reprisals in time of peace are no longer legal, but the possibility remains of non-armed reprisals (also known as countermeasures)[4] as well as belligerent reprisals during hostilities when the law of international armed conflict (LOIAC) is violated.[5]
In the case of belligerent reprisals, apart from the three factors in the Naulilaa case, a warning must also be issued beforehand; once the other party has stopped violation of LOIAC, belligerent reprisals must also be terminated; and the decision to engage in belligerent reprisals must be taken by a competent authority.[5] In the United States military, the lowest ranked commander who may authorize a reprisal is a general in command of a theater.
All four Geneva Conventions prohibit reprisals against, respectively, battlefield casualties, shipwreck survivors, prisoners of war and civilians, as well as certain buildings and property. An additional 1977 protocol extends this to cover historic monuments, works of art, and places of worship.
See also
- Collective punishment
- Letter of marque (license to hunt enemy ships and retake lost ships from the enemy).
- War
References
- ^ Karl Josef Partsch: Self-Preservation. EPIL IV (2000), pages 380-383
- ^ http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/January-February-2003/scene_giry_janfeb2003.msp
- ^ Shaw, Malcolm (2008). International Law (6th edn). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 1129. ISBN 978-0-521-72814-0.
- ^ Brownlie, Ian (2008). Principles of Public International Law (7th edn). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 466. ISBN 978-0-19-921770-0.
- ^ a b Dinstein, Yôrām (2004). The Conduct of Hostilities under the Law of International Armed Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 220. ISBN 0-521-54227-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=a88YJ7MuaMoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+conduct+of+hostilities+under+the+law+of+international+armed+conflict#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
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Look up reprisal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
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Reprisal
Dansk (Danish)
n. - gengældelse, gengældelsesaktion, modforholdsregler
Nederlands (Dutch)
vergeldings- maatregel
Français (French)
n. - représailles
Deutsch (German)
n. - Vergeltungsakt
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αντεκδίκηση, ανταπόδοση των ίσων, (πληθ.) αντίποινα
Italiano (Italian)
rappresaglia
Português (Portuguese)
n. - represália (f)
Русский (Russian)
ответный удар, месть
Español (Spanish)
n. - represalia
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - vedergällning, repressalier, beslagtagande
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
报复, 报复性劫掠, 报仇
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 報復, 報復性劫掠, 報仇
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 報復, 仕返し, 報復攻撃
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) إنتقام, إسترداد
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - פעולת תגמול, מעשה נקמה
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