Side by side with the idea of arbitration, another pacific idea,
already powerful, is pressing forward, and growing into an
International Law, namely, the Law of Neutrality.
He is neutral, who neither takes part for, nor against, in a dispute.
Neutrality is the impartial position which is not associated with
either party. The State is called neutral which neither takes part in a
war itself, nor in time of war sides with any of the warring parties.
In ancient times neutrality was not understood as a national right.
Neither the Greek nor the Latin language has any word to express
the idea. In the days when Roman policy was seeking to drag all the
nations of the earth into its net, the Romans saw in other peoples only
tributaries who had been subdued by their armies, subject nations who
had submitted to the Roman yoke, allies who were compelled to join in
their policy of conquest, or lastly enemies, who sooner or later would
have to bow before their victorious legions. Neutral States there were
none.
The centuries immediately following the dissolution of the Western
Roman Empire were filled with constant strife. This continued long
before the refining power which exists in the heart of Christianity
began to show itself in the foreign relations of States.
The foundations of modern Europe were laid in war.
During the Crusades the whole of our continent was under arms. The
struggle against the "infidel" was not simply a contest between one
State and another, it was also a contest between Christian Europe and
Mohammedan Asia. To be neutral in such a struggle would, according to
the judgment of the time, have been equivalent to denying the faith.
Within the European States, feudalism exerted no less a hindrance to
the embodiment of the principle of neutrality. It would have been
thought the gravest crime to loosen the bond of military service which
compelled vassals to support with arms the cause of their feudal lords.
It was only with the close of the age of feudalism, when Europe began
to separate into three or four great monarchies, that neutrality in
politics became a means of preserving the balance.
In later times increasing COMMUNICATION and TRADE have above all
contributed to the development of neutral laws. Without the sanction
of these, a naval war between two great nations would have made any
maritime trade all but impossible. Down to the close of the last
century, however, neutral rights were dependent either on national
statutes or on special treaties concluded between one State and
another. The law only gained certain international importance towards
the close of the eighteenth century through the NEUTRAL ALLIANCES which
from time to time were contracted between States.
In the period between 1780 and 1856 the subject gained an entrance by
degrees among all maritime nations except England, who, independent
of it, and always relying on her own strength, continuously sought to
maintain unlimited domination at sea.
In 1854-56 begins, so far as neutrality is concerned, a new era of
international law.
From this time the opposition which England raised to the practical
application of neutrality in naval war may be regarded as having
broken down. On the 30th of March, 1854, the French Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Drouyn de Lhuys, published a communication, including, amongst
other things, that the neutral flag during the then begun (Crimean)
war, should be regarded as a protection for all neutral and hostile
private property, except contraband of war. The same day the English
Government gave forth in the _London Gazette_ a similar declaration,
and on April 19th of the same year the Russian Government notified in
the _Official Gazette_ of St. Petersburg that Russia would, during that
war, act upon the same rules as the Allied powers.
The provisions, which thus the Western powers on one side, and
Russia on the other, believed themselves bound to observe towards
neutral states, were at the Peace of Paris, 1856, solemnly ratified
as International Law in force for all time. The principles which the
plenipotentiary signatories of the Peace Treaty of Paris agreed upon in
a proclamation of April 16th, 1856, are as follows:--
1. Privateering is and shall be abolished. 2. The neutral flag shall
protect property belonging to the enemy, with the exception of
contraband of war. 3. Neutral goods, except contraband of war, may
not be seized under the enemy's flag. 4. Blockades in order to be
obligatory must be fully effectual; that is, shall be maintained with a
strength really sufficient to prevent approach to the enemy's coast.
The Governments which signed the treaty bound themselves also, in this
proclamation, to communicate the resolutions to the States which were
not called to take part in the Paris Conference, and to invite them to
agree in these decisions. All the European States except Spain, and a
number of powers outside Europe, declared themselves ready to carry out
in practice the entire resolutions of the proclamation.
Many wars since then have shaken Europe; but under all these
misfortunes the warring States have not only conscientiously observed
the principles laid down in 1856, but they have gone further, in
certain points, in applying them, than they by it were bound to do.
Thus the Austrian Government issued an order, during the war with
France and Sardinia, with respect to maritime national law, in many
points far beyond what hostile or neutral powers had any ground for
requesting. The Imperial decree not only charged its military and civil
officers to follow strictly the injunctions of the proclamation, but
Sardinian and French vessels, which lay moored in Austrian waters, were
also to be permitted to load freight and proceed to foreign seas, on
condition that they took on board no contraband of war or prohibited
goods of any description. Immediately on the outbreak of war, the same
principles were adopted by France and Sardinia. These States, however,
went a step further than Austria, inasmuch as they unreservedly
declared that they would not regard coal as a contraband of war.
During the Dano-German War, in 1864, and the war between Austria and
Prussia and Italy, in 1866, the international principles of maritime
law received a similarly wide interpretation.
During the North American Civil War important questions came up, which
more or less affected the principle of neutrality. The question, which
became one of the greatest importance, arose in respect of the injury
which the commerce and navigation of the Union suffered during the war
from various privateers which were built in England on the Southerners'
account.
The ALABAMA QUESTION took its name from the privateer which went out
from Liverpool and occasioned the greatest devastation while the
war lasted. Although the executive of the Union at Washington duly
directed the attention of the English Government to the fact that
allowing the pirate to leave the English port would be equivalent to
a breach of the peace, yet the Government took no measures to prevent
the vessel leaving. The American Government, who with reason regarded
this omission as a violation of the laws of neutrality, claimed from
England full compensation for the property which had been destroyed
in the course of the civil war by the Southern privateer which came
from an English port. I have previously given more particularly the
constitution and functions of the Court of Arbitration appointed to
settle the threatening dispute which arose on this occasion. The
arbitration award had to be adjudicated in accordance with the three
following fundamental principles of international law:--