Impartial or Uninvolved? The Anatomy of 20th Century Doctrine on the Law of Neutrality

A Most Useful Tool for Diplomacy and Statecraft: Neutrality and Europe in the ‘Long’ Nineteenth Century, 1815–1914

“…96 By the time of the first Hague Peace Conference at the turn of the century, British lawyers were at the forefront of advocating for particular neutrality rights and obligations. They were not the only ones.…”

“…As examples, the Americans cut neutral cables to Cuba and the Philippines in 1898, the neutral Germans shipped military materials to the Transvaal via Windhoek during the Boer War, Russia declared foodstuffs contraband in 1904 (making it illegal for neutrals to trade in foodstuffs with Japan), neutral ships breaching contraband rules were sunk rather than taken to prize courts in the same year, while the neutral French allowed Russian warships to coal in French imperial ports. 104 weaknesses of neutrality being concealed by relative periods of peace, 106 while Gordon A. Craig claims that it was Germany's disregard for neutral rights and the decline in economic liberalism that spelt the end of neutrality from 1871 on. 107 But what stands out about these wartime challenges to neutrality is that rather than abrogate it, the Great Powers made concerted efforts to codify further, make the regulations clearer and establish rules of acceptable neutral and belligerent behaviour.…”