The Legal Administration of Palestine under the British Military Occupation 1 British Year Book of International Law 1920-1921

1 Brit. Y.B. Int'l L. 139 (1920-1921)
The Legal Administration of Palestine under the British Military Occupation

handle is hein.journals/byrint1 and id is 145 raw text is: THE LEGAL ADMINISTRATION OF PALESTINE UNDER
THE BRITISH MILITARY OCCUPATION
By LIEUT.-COL. NORMAN BENTWICH, Chief Judicial Officer,
Occupied Territories, Palestine
ON December 9, 1919, all the communities in Jerusalem
celebrated the second anniversary of the delivery of the city to
the English army. The future of Palestine has not yet been
settled because peace has not been concluded with Turkey; but the
parts of the Ottoman Empire in British occupation have enjoyed
at least the respite from Turkish misrule. And an account of
the legal administration in a military occupation may be of
interest in its aspect of applied international law. For more
than two years, Judea, and for more than one year, the rest of
Palestine (or Occupied Enemy Territory South, as it is officially
called) has been governed by a provisional military administration
appointed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expedi-
tionary Force. The administration is composed of the Chief
Administrator and six Heads of Departments who have their
headquarters at Jerusalem, and of a number of Military Governors
with their staffs in the districts. The powers of the administration
were defined and limited by the laws and usages of war, which
require the occupant, till Peace is made and the sovereignty
of the country is determined, to carry on as far as possible the
system of government which he finds in the occupied territory,
and prohibits him from making innovation in the laws of the
country. Martial law was indeed proclaimed at the time of the
entry into Jerusalem; but it has been applied only for the purpose
of protecting the Army of Occupation and for supplementing the
Ottoman law where necessary. It has been enforced by special
military courts composed of British officers, while the civil courts
139

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