Kānāwai Māmalahoe

The Kānāwai Māmalahoe, or Law of the Splintered Paddle, is a precept of Hawaiian law proclaimed by Kamehameha I in 1797, ordering that the old, women and children be free to lie by the roadside without fear of harm. It arose from an incident in Puna, where a fisherman, Kaleleiki, struck Kamehameha on the head with a paddle that broke, yet spared him; years later Kamehameha ruled that the man had only defended his land and family. Drawn from older Hawaiian ideas of legitimate rule, the law is written into Article 9, Section 10 of the state constitution and has become a model for modern human rights law on the treatment of civilians in war.