the Lieber Code was the first modern codification of both customary international law and the law of war of Europe, and later was a basis for the Hague Convention of 1907, which restated and codified the practical particulars of that U.S. military law for application to international war among the signatory countries. Ethical warfare As the modernization of the 1806 Articles of War (An Act for Establishing Rules and Articles for the Government of the Armies of the United States), the Lieber Code defines and describes what is a state of civil war, what is military occupation, and explains the politico-military purposes of war; explains what are the permissible and the impermissible military means an army can employ to fight and win a war; and defines and describes the nature of the nation-state, the nature of national sovereignty, and what is rebellion. The Code requires the humane, ethical treatment of civil populations under the military occupation of the Union Army, and forbids the No Quarter policy of killing prisoners of war — except when taking prisoners endangers the capturing unit. Moreover, concerning the ethics of fighting a civil war, Article 70, Section III stipulates that “the use of poison in any manner, be it to poison wells, or food, or arms, is wholly excluded from modern warfare. He that uses it puts himself out of the pale of the law and usages of war.” The Code forbids torture as warfare; thus Article 44, Section II prohibits “all wanton violence committed against persons in the invaded country, all destruction of property not commanded by the authorized officer, all robbery, all pillage or sacking, even after taking a place by main force, all rape, wounding, maiming, or killing of such inhabitants, are prohibited under the penalty of death, or such other severe punishment as may seem adequate for the gravity of the offense. A soldier, officer, or private, in the act of committing such violence, and disobeying a superior ordering him to abstain from it, may be lawfully killed on the spot by such superior.” Black prisoners of war The Lieber Code military law concorded with the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and prohibited racist discrimination against black soldiers of the Union Army, specifically the Confederate Army denying them the rights and privileges of prisoners of war. Those stipulations of U.S. military law specifically addressed the Confederate government’s proclamation that the Confederate Army would