The late nineteenth century saw the introduction and widespread introduction of small-caliber rifles, lighter bullets and smokeless powder, resulting in bullets fired at increased speed and at greater distances. At the same distance, bullets fired from newer rifles had much more energy on impact. Chassepot rifles used by the French in the German-French War (1870-1871) were reported to propel the bullet at such a speed that at close range, when hitting a compact bone, the soft lead that made up the bullet often flew in fragments, creating effects similar to an explosion. A. Ogston, “The Wounds Produced by Modern Small-Bore Bullets” (pdf), British Medical Journal, p. 17. September 1898, page 814 The greater heat generated by the firing of these rifles caused conventional lead alloy bullets to adhere to the grooves of the barrel, resulting in contamination. To avoid direct contact of the leash with the rifle bore and to prevent bullets from losing their shape as they passed through the fast turns of the rifle, the lead core of the bullets was wrapped in a hard metal jacket. These modern fully coated rifle bullets were used, for example, in the French War in Dahomey, in the Italian War with King Menelik in Abyssinia and by the English on the northwest border and Chitral in India. It was found that bullets had considerable penetrating power, and if they did not hit the hard tissues of the body (bones), they were able to pass through one or even more human bodies without causing very serious injuries (unless they hit a vital organ).A.
Ogston, “The Wounds Produced by Modern Small Caliber Bullets,” British Medical Journal, September 17, 1898, p. 814. The use of balls that expand or flatten slightly in the human body is prohibited. ICRC, Customary Study on IHL, 2005, rule 77. Some knowledge of ballistics is necessary to understand how expanding spheres work. Ballistics, the “science of projectiles and their behavior,” can be divided into internal ballistics, external ballistics, and final ballistics. Footnote 63 The first examines the behaviour of the projectile in the barrel of the gun, the second during its flight and the third – which is of particular interest to us here – when it hits its target. Terminal ballistics is called wound ballistics when the target is alive. Footnote 64 A formula is common to all ballistics: E k = 1/2mv 2, where Ek is the kinetic energy of the projectile in joules, m its mass in kilograms and v its speed in meters per second. Thus, the kinetic energy of a projectile corresponds to half of its mass multiplied by its velocity squared: the heavier and faster a projectile is, the more energy it carries. The means of combating riots and expanding bullets have different effects on the human body, depending on whether they are used in the conduct of hostilities or in the maintenance of public order.
We will first show that the toxicity of munitions varies depending on the context in which they are used and that they can easily lose their “non-lethal” character when used in combat operations. Second, we will explain that, in the context of law enforcement by police forces, the cartridges used for bullets designed to flatten and deform on impact are often different from military rifle cartridges and therefore do not cause the same injuries as during the conduct of hostilities. The British, embroiled in conflicts with what they saw as “semi-civilized or barbaric races,” found that their enemies continued to advance even after being pierced by fully disguised modern bullets. Therefore, during the British Chitral Campaign (1895), some British soldiers rubbed the mantle of the bullet`s nose, allowing the lead core to spread on impact to cause crippling injuries to the flesh and neutralize the rapidly advancing “fanatical tribes.” This change was then made at the munitions factory in Dum Dum, a small town near Calcutta, and produced what became known as the Dumdum bullet. The bullets were issued on the orders of the Indian government. Her Majesty`s Government was fully informed, but was not invited or asked to approve the production. (Mr. Waldren, Dum-Dum Bullets, Police Firearms Officers Association (PFOA), Police History Series, p. 12.) This bullet was used by British troops in the Tirah campaign and in wars on the northwestern border of the Indian Empire (now Pakistan`s northwestern border province on the border with Afghanistan). The States parties to the Kampala Conference on the Revision of the Rome Statute, held from 31 May to 11 June 2010, adopted article 8 (2) (e) (xv) of the Rome Statute, according to which the use of bullets prohibited in international armed conflicts under article 2 (b) (xix) is also punishable as a war crime within the jurisdiction of the Court, if they are committed in the context of a non-international armed conflict. The inclusion of this crime in the Statute of the Court was based on a Belgian proposal and was somewhat controversial, not least because of the uncertainty as to the conformity of certain types of modern spheres with the prohibition of the expansion of bullets in international law.
See “Report of the Working Group on Other Amendments”, RC/11, annex IV, §§ 3-8.