CASUS

BELLI  , the technical term for cases in which a state holds itself justified in making war, if a certain course to which it objects is persisted in . Interference with the full exercise of a nation's rights or independence, an affront to its dignity, an unredressed injury, are instances of cases belli . Most of the new compulsory treaties of arbitration entered into by Great Britain and other states exclude from their application cases affecting the " vital interests " or " national honour of the contracting states . These may therefore be considered as a sort of definition of cases belli in so far as the high contracting parties to them are concerned .