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calculated to cause unnecessary suffering, which is a principle that is found in treaties to whichthe United States is a Party and in customary international law. 75The prohibition in the Declaration against “any projectile of less weight than fourhundred grammes, which is explosive, or is charged with fulminating or inflammablesubstances” does not reflect customary international law. 76 For example, for many decadeswithout legal controversy, States have used, and continue to use, tracer ammunition, grenades,explosive bullets, or other projectiles of less weight than four hundred grams with a burning orexplosive capability. 7719.7 1899 AND 1907 HAGUE DECLARATIONS ON WEAPONS19.7.1 1899 Declaration on Expanding Bullets. The 1899 Declaration on ExpandingBullets prohibits Parties from using “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 withincisions.” 78 The Declaration only creates obligations for Parties to the Declaration ininternational armed conflicts in which all the parties to the conflict are also Parties to theDeclaration. 79The United States is not a Party to the 1899 Declaration on Expanding Bullets and doesnot regard the 1899 Declaration on Expanding Bullets as customary international law applicablein either international or non-international armed conflicts. 8075 Refer to § 6.6 (Weapons Calculated to Cause Superfluous Injury).76 U.S. RESPONSE TO ICRC CIHL STUDY 524 (“Since the St. Petersburg Declaration, there has been considerableState practice involving the anti-personnel use of exploding bullets, despite the ICRC’s statement that governmentshave ‘adhered’ to the Declaration. Two participants in the ICRC-hosted 1974 Lucerne Meeting of Experts oncertain weapons conventional weapons concluded: ‘At present it is widely held that in view of the development inweapons technology and state practice the St. Petersburg Declaration cannot be interpreted literally, or in any casethat it has not as such become declaratory of customary international law.... [T]he prohibition contained in it servesto illustrate the principle prohibiting the causing of unnecessary suffering, at least as it was contemplated in 1868.’U.S. legal reviews have detailed State practice contrary to the ICRC’s statement and consistent with the conclusioncontained in the above quotation.”) (amendments to internal quote shown in U.S. Response to ICRC CIHL Study).77 Consider Commission of Jurists to Consider and Report Upon the Revision of the Rules of Warfare, GeneralReport, Part II: Rules of Aërial Warfare, art. 18, Feb. 19, 1923, reprinted in 32 AJIL SUPPLEMENT: OFFICIALDOCUMENTS 12, 21 (1938) (“The use of tracer, incendiary or explosive projectiles by or against an aircraft is notprohibited. This provision applies equally to states which are parties to the Declaration of St. Petersburg, 1868, andto those which are not.”). Refer to § 6.5.4.3 (Exploding Bullets).78 Declaration to Abstain From the Use of Bullets Which Expand or Flatten Easily in the Human Body, Jul. 29,1899, reprinted in 1 AJIL SUPPLEMENT: OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS 155, 155-56 (1907) (“The Contracting Parties agreeto abstain from the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hardenvelope which does not entirely cover the core, or is pierced with incisions.”).79 Declaration to Abstain From the Use of Bullets Which Expand or Flatten Easily in the Human Body, Jul. 29,1899, reprinted in 1 AJIL SUPPLEMENT: OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS 155, 156 (1907) (“The present Declaration is onlybinding for the Contracting Powers in the case of a war between two or more of them. It shall cease to be bindingfrom the time when, in a war between the Contracting Powers, one of the belligerents is joined by a non-ContractingPower.”).80 Refer to § 6.5.4.4 (Expanding Bullets).1141