释义 |
reprisals pl. n. Retaliatory measures taken by one state against another to settle a dispute occasioned by the other’s illegal or unjustified conduct. Reprisals include boycotts, embargoes, and limited military action. A military reprisal, if otherwise than for the purpose of lawful self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, is now illegal under international law. Examples of reprisals include the expulsion of Hungarians from Yugoslavia in 1935, in retaliation for alleged Hungarian responsibility for the murder of King Alexander of Yugoslavia, and the bombardment of the Spanish port of Almeria by German warships in 1937, as a reprisal for an alleged bombing of the battleship Deutschland by Spanish Republican forces. Perhaps the most famous example was the US bombing of Libya in April 1986, by way of reprisal for alleged Libyan involvement in an explosion at a discotheque in Berlin, which killed 50 US service personnel. |