三者均为国际法上的报复行为。retaliation ( “报复”）为通用语，指对过错或伤害行为进行的报复（the act of striking back for an injury or wrong, return of like for like[1])。reprisal 和 retorsion则为具体的两种报复行为。其中，retorsion (也拼写为retortion) 为“反报”，主要是指针对某国家不礼貌，不友好，不正当或不公正，但不一定是非法的行为，用相同或类似的行为所进行的合法报复，如中断外交关系，驱逐其国民，限制他们的旅游权利(an act of lawful retaliation in kind for another's unfriendly or unfair act. Examples of retorsion include suspending diplomatic relations ,expelling foreign nationals, and restricting travel rights. )，以及设置贸易壁垒等。而reprisal所指的报复行为或手段则比retorsion激烈，常包括诸如捕获船舶或扣押货物，轰炸或占领它国领土，或扣押人员等，但不包括战争(an act of retaliation, usually of one nation against another but short of war； the use of force，short of war, against another country to redress an injury caused by that country[3])。过去不少词典和学者都将reprisal译为“报复”，这样一来便与retaliation的译法雷同。笔者认为既然reprisal 是“an act of retaliation”，而且 retorsion 也是一种“an act of lawful retaliation”，现 retaliation 已经是“报复”,再将 reprisal 简单译为“报复”似乎不妥。鉴于人们已经习惯称retorsion为“反报”，笔者因此建议将reprisal译为“反击”（我国在上世纪 六、七十年代进行的中越、中印边界自卫反击战不就是一种很好的例证），以消除reprisal与retaliation的混清。
[1] Cf. Gerard M. Dalgish, Ph. D. , Random House Webster's Dictionary of American English, at p. 1102，Random House, New York (1997).
[2] Cf. Bryan A. Gamer, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th edition, at p. 1318, West Group (1999).
[3] Cf. Bryan A. Gamer, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, 2nd edition, at p. 759, Oxford University Press Ltd. (1995)；Cf. Bryan A . Gamer, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th edition, at p. 1305, West Group (1999).
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