Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

Debellatio

[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-Uhich Meyn, "Debellatio," in 1 Encyclopedia of Public International Law 166 (1992).