Expanding bullet

The 1899 Hague Declaration concerning Expanding Bullets prohibits the use, in case of a war between two or more of the Contracting Powers, of

bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover the core or is pierced with incisions.

Thus, the Declaration prohibits the use of certain bullets based on terminal ballistic effects (‘expand or flatten easily in the human body’) which, in 1899, were believed to inflict especially severe wounds, and by reference to certain technical characteristics believed to be responsible for the expansion of the bullet in the human body (a ‘hard envelope which does not entirely cover the core’ or which is ‘pierced with incisions’).

Although the prohibition was introduced mostly with a view to banning the British dumdum bullet, the expression ‘such as’ indicates that the drafters envisaged that other types of bullets could expand or flatten easily in the human body, and would, hence, be prohibited. Determining precisely the bullets, other than some manufactured in the 19th century, that would be captured by the definition was, and remains, disputed.

The dumdum bullet is named after the small town near Calcutta where the ammunition factory was located that produced the bullet in the 1890s. The similar Woolwich bullet was a ‘hollow-point’ bullet developed at the ordnance factory at Woolwich, England, in the late 1890s.

Last updated on: 30 November 2013