ARMISTICE. - An armistice is the mutual agreement of belligerents, whose effect is the suspension of hostilities, total or partial, for a determined or undetermined time. It differs from a simple suspension of arms, by which the employment of the means of combat is interrupted for a short time, in order to provide for needs that do not concern the general conduct of the war, such as the collection of the wounded and the burial of the fallen. It may be, as has been said, general or partial, extending to the whole theater of war or to a part of it, temporary or perpetual, according to the stipulations of the contracting parties. The perpetual one generally precedes peace negotiations and serves to facilitate their conclusion.
The armistice does not have as its effect the cessation of the state of belligerency, which endures with all its juridical consequences until the stipulation of peace. For its conclusion, special powers conferred by the supreme command of the army are required. It is debated what its juridical effects are: a rigid ruling holds that it forbids any work or movement of troops tending to improve the respective positions of the belligerents to the detriment of the other; a broader one holds that ordinary movements, repair works, supplies and the like are permitted in the rear areas, and this seems the truer view, since an armistice is not a convention of absolute immobility. Moreover, it is up to the parties to determine the modalities, in order to guard against dangers.
For the armistice the general rule of contracts applies, which imposes on the parties the obligation to observe the stipulated clauses and forbids their unilateral violation, upon the occurrence of which the other party may legitimately resume hostilities. To render war more humane, the so-called truces (v.) had great influence in the Middle Ages, temporary armistices imposed by ecclesiastical authorities.
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Antonio Messineo