ABSTRACT
The principle that European sovereignty was not to be alienated through the use of force, a principle that crystallised in Europe in the Congress of Vienna, found its manifestation in international law of the nineteenth century as part of the laws of war. Sovereignty was to be protected by a regime that prohibited any unilateral change of status during occupation and which delineated the authority of the foreign power between invasion and the re-establishment of peace. Indirectly then, the law of occupation, as part of the laws of war, defined and protected state sovereignty. According to this law, the occupying power is bound to respect and maintain the political and other institutions that exist in that territory, and is responsible for the management of public order and civil life in the territory under its control. The occupation is also limited in time and the occupant has only temporary managerial powers, for the duration of the occupation. The occupant administers the territory on behalf of the sovereign and the occupied population.
