Justice Gaston of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, in West, adopted these words:
"War in the legal sense is the state of nations among whom there is an interruption of all pacific relations and a general contestation of arms by authority of the several sovereigns; it is not a mere contest of force, but must be an armed struggle carried on between two political bodies each of which exercises de facto authority over persons within a determinate territory, and its existence is determined by the authorized political department of the government. So, lawful war can never exist without the actual concurrence of the war-making power, but may exist prior to any contest of the armed forces."
John Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 1914 edition, defined war as:
"... the state of nations among whom there is an interruption of all pacific relations, and a general contention by force, authorized by the sovereign."
In Savage, from the case summary to the opinion of Justice Dawkins of the Louisiana District Court:
"War does not exist merely because of an armed attack by the military forces of another nation until it is a condition recognized or accepted by political authority of government which is attacked, either through an actual declaration of war or other acts demonstrating such position."
In Driefontein, Justice Mathew wrote:
"When differences between states reach a point at which both parties resort to force, or one of them does an act of violence, which the other chooses to look upon as a breach of the peace, the relation of war is set up, in which the combatants may use regulated violence against each other, until one of the two has been brought to accept such terms as his enemy is willing to grant."
In Pesquerias, Justice Morton added:
"... in my view, the word war in a policy of insurance includes civil war unless the context makes it clear that a different meaning should be given to the word. There is no such context in the policy now under consideration. I can see no good reason for giving to the word war a meaning which excludes one type of war."
REFERENCES:
- Driefontein Consolidated Gold Mines v Janson (1900) 2 QB 339
- Duhaime, Lloyd, International Law Dictionary
- Pesquerias y Secaderos de Bacalao de Espana SA v Beer (1949) 1 All ER 845
- Savage v Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada 57 F. Supp. 620 (1944)
- West v Palmetto State Life Insurance 25 SE 2d 475; also at 202 SC 422, 25 SE 2d 475, 145 ALR 1461 (1943)