Memorandum of Law - The Legality of Snipers
![handle is hein.journals/armylaw1992 and id is 819 raw text is: Memorandum of Law-
The Legality of Snipers
Editor's Note: The following memorandum
addresses a concern that the Army's use of
snipers in combat might violate the law of
war., After examining the roles established
for snipers in Army and Marine Corps
doctrines and the general international
acceptance of the use of snipers in combat,
the memorandum concludes that this con-
cern is unfounded. As long as snipers comply
with the legal constraint; that govern all
combatants, the use of snipers does not
violate the law of war.
DAJA-IO
29 September 1992
MEMORANDUM FOR DA, AMCCOM (SMCAR-CCJ
'(MR. SMALL)),
PICATINNY ARSENAL,
NEW JERSEY
07806-5000
SUBJECT: Legality of Snipers
. On 18 September 1992, a request was made for information
as to the legality of snipers. This opinion has been prepared to
provide the information requested.
2. The legality of snipers has not been addressed directly. In
1990, this office reviewed the legality Of sniper use of open-
tip ammunition and briefly addressed the legality of snipers as
such; a copy of that opinion was published in the February
1991 edition of The Army Lawyer (DA Pam. 27-50-218).
3. The United States Army (FM 23-10 [draft]) defines sniper
as
a soldier with special ability, training, and
equipment who is designated to deliver,
discriminating and highly accurate rifle fire
against targets which, because of range,
size, location, fleeting nature or visibility
cannot be engaged successfully by the aver-
age rifleman.
The United States Marine Corps (FMFM 1-3B) defines
scout-sniper as
a Marine who is highly trained in fieldcraft-
and marksmanship who delivers long-range
precision ftre at selected targets'from . con-,
cealed positions in support of combat pera-
tions, with a secondary mission of gathering'
information for intelligence purposes.
4. The law of war recognizes the legality of the taking of the
lives of enemy combatants. Article 15 of Army General
Orders No.: 100 (1863), also known as the Lieber Code, set
forth a princpal that remains the law of war today: Military
necessity admits of all direct destruction of life or limb of
armed enemies ... This statement does not limit lawful
attacks to persons armed at the moment of the attack, but
includes all persons who are combatants.
5. A sniper's ability to engage enemy targets at longer ranges
than an 'average rifleman does not have any bearing on the
legality of the 'sniper's mission. Enemy combatants are lawful
targets at all times, wherever they may be located, regardless
of the activity in which they are engaged when they are
attacked. See, for example,'Army Field Manual 27-10, The
Law of Land Warfare (1956). In discussing the prohibition on
assassination, paragraph 31 states,
[The prohibition on assassination] does not
... preclude attacks on individual soldiers
or officers of the enemy whether in the zone
of hostilities, occupied territory, or elsewhere.
(Assassination is defined in a 2 November 1989 opinion of
this office, which subsequently was published in the
December 1989 issue of DA Pam. 27-50-204, The Army
Lawyer.)
Soldiers lawfully may be attacked behind their lines by any
lawful means. A sniper's work is indistinguishable from a
law of war standpoint from other lawful means. The practice
of nations at war in their employment of snipers in virtually
every conflict in this century is an acknowledgement through
state practice of the legality of snipers.
6. Ignorance of the law of war has suggested on occasion that
a sniper s work is less than legal. For example, in Charles W.
Henderson's Marine Sniper (New York, 1986), its author
quotes (p. 107) then-Captain E. J. Land, USMC, as declaring
that
As a sniper,... you will be killing the enemy
when he is unaware of your presence. You
will be assassinating him without giving
him the option to run or fight, surrender or
_die. You will be, in a sense, committing
murder on him-premeditated.
This is the unenlightened view of sniping; it also is legally
incorrect. Captain Land was correct in stating that sniping
does not afford an enemy combatant an opportunity to run,
fight,' s urrender, or die. Neither does an artillery barrage or
rocket attack, a land mine, an ambush, a commando raid, or an
airstrike. Attack of enemy personnel by any lawful means,
including sniping, is neither assassination nor murder-it is
lawful killing. The element of surprise is a fundamental
principle of war, and does not make an otherwise legitimate
act of violence unlawful.
DECEMBER 1992 THE ARMY LAWYER * DA PAM 27-50-241](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/armylaw1992&div=55&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Memorandum of Law - The Legality of Snipers
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