DEBELLATIO

debellatio  (deb-<<schwa>>-lay-shee-oh).  [Latin]  Int’l  law.  A  means  of  ending  a  war  and

acquiring  territory  when  one  of  the  belligerent  countries  has  been  so  soundly  defeated  that  its

adversary is able to decide alone the fate of the defeated country’s territory; conquest followed by

annexation. — Also termed subjugation.

“[There are] three possible alternative meanings of debellatio in international law. The first is

that  debellatio  denotes  the  change  wrought  by  the  conquest  and  total  subjugation  of  a  State

together  with  that  State’s  annexation  by  the  conqueror.  The  second  view  is  that  debellatio

corresponds  to  the  total  defeat  of  an  enemy  State,  its  occupation,  and  the  elimination  of  a  vital

component  of  Statehood;  in  this  view,  debellatio  implies  the  extinction  of  the  old  State,  but  it

leaves open the legal future of the occupied territory (annexation or the founding of one or more

new States). The third view is that debellatio only describes a factual situation and that even the

elimination of all the State organs combined with the occupation of the territory does not exclude

the continuing existence of that State. It is mainly the second and the third meanings of debellatio

which  have  been  advocated  for  the  situation  of  Germany  since  the  end  of  World  War  II.”

Karl-Ulrich Meyn, “Debellatio,” in 1 Encyclopedia of Public International Law 166 (1992). [Blacks Law 8th]