ARTICLE: Joseph F. PRESTIA, "‘Civilized States’ and Situational Sovereignty: The Dilemmas of Romanian Neutrality, 1914–1916" (European History Quarterly, ADVANCE ARTICLE)

 

(image source: Sage)

Abstract:

At the 1914 Crown Council, which decided to keep Romania neutral in 1914, former Conservative prime minister Petre Carp offered his succinct and direct opinion about the direction of Romanian foreign policy in the opening days of the Great War. He admonished the Council that, if Romania wanted to remain among the ‘civilized states’ (statele civilizate) it had to follow Germany and Austria-Hungary into war immediately. The idea of ‘civilized states’ that dominated the remainder of the Crown Council was not merely an intersubjective social construction. It was a legal term of art in fin de siècle international law that could be applied in the real world. It was only the legally-civilized states that enjoyed the full panoply of rights, privileges, and protections under international law. This is a study of how Romania’s policy-making elite, and Ion I. C. Brătianu’s government, in particular, confronted the challenges of ‘situational sovereignty’. It asserts that, during Romania’s two-year Period of Neutrality (3 August 1914–17 August 1916), Brătianu initially used bilateral conventions as both a method to establish recognition of Romania’s status (or at least a guarantee of territorial integrity) and as a litmus test to determine which (if any) foreign powers recognized Romania as a legal equal. Although he was able to achieve a short-term victory of having an equality clause inserted into the August 1916 political convention with the Entente, it is unclear if that clause could have been durable. Ultimately, Brătianu was trapped between a desire to secure Romania’s recognition through international agreement, but confronted with the reality that Romania’s lack of recognition as a legally-civilized equal meant those very conventions could be unenforceable.

Read the article here. 

BOOK: Herbert R. REGINBOGIN and Pascal LOTTAZ (eds.), Permanent Neutrality: A Model for Peace, Security, and Justice, London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020, ISBN 9781793610287

 

(image source: neutralitystudies)

Book abstract:

Neutrality is the forgotten step-child of International Relations. Despite its century-old tradition, invoked and utilized by statesmen and stateswomen from Catherina the Great, over George Washington to Franklin D. Roosevelt, it has been cast aside as a relic of the distant past. Yet, the “neutral idea” never died. From ancient Greece to the twenty-first century, there were always those who decided that they wanted to be “friends to you and foe to neither,” as Thucydides put it 2400 years ago. This book examines why and how that is the case. The seven authors pay particular attention to permanent neutrality, explaining why it is a realist security model, rivaling collective security, and what its modern-day applications are. From Taiwan, over Russia, Ukraine, the EU, and to the USA, permanent neutrality has its implications for all players in the international system. It harbors the potential to decrease the security dilemma among states and contribute to peace, security, and justice of this young century.

Table of contents:

 A Tale of Two Strategies: Permanent Neutrality and Collective Security (page 15)

​Stephen C. Neff

Neutrality and Security: A Comparison with Alternative Models of National Security (page 39)
P. Terrence Hopmann

The Logic of Neutrality (page 57)
Pascal Lottaz

The Model of Neutrality: The Example of East-Central European States (page 89)
​Heinz Gärtner

Neutral and Nonaligned States in the European Union (page 111)
Gunther Hauser

Neutral Power Russia (page 129)
Glenn Diesen

America's Experience with Neutrality: An Epoch of Neutrality (page 145)
​Herbert R. Reginbogin

The Nomos of Neutrality in East Asia (page 167)
​Herbert R. Reginbogin and Pascal Lottaz

Taiwanese Neutrality: Solving the Conundrum (page 191)
Pascal Lottaz and Herbert R. Reginbogin

10. Case Studies of Contemporary Neutrality Advocacy (page 209)
Lu Hsiu-lien, Michael Tsai, and Michaek O' Hanlon

(source: neutralitystudies) 

BOOK: James UPCHER, Neutrality in Contemporary International Law [Oxford Monographs in Public International Law] (Oxford: OUP, 2020), 336 p. ISBN 9780198739760, 80 GBP

(image source: OUP)

Book abstract:

The law of neutrality - the corpus of legal rules regulating the relationship between belligerents and States taking no part in hostilities - assumed its modern form in a world in which the waging of war was unconstrained. The neutral State enjoyed territorial inviolability to the extent that it adhered to the obligations attaching to its neutral status and thus the law of neutrality provided spatial parameters for the conduct of hostilities. Yet the basis on which the law of neutrality developed - the extra-legal character of war - no longer exists. Does the law of neutrality continue to survive in the modern era? If so, how has it been modified by the profound changes in the law on the use of force and the law of armed conflict? This book argues that neutrality endures as a key concept of the law of armed conflict. The interaction between belligerent and nonbelligerent States continues to require legal regulation, as demonstrated by a number of recent conflicts, including the Iraq War of 2003 and the Mavi Marmara incident of 2010. By detailing the rights and duties of neutral states and demonstrating how the rules of neutrality continue to apply in modern day conflicts, this restatement of law of neutrality will be a useful guide to legal academics working on the law of armed conflict, the law on the use of force, and the history of international law, as well as for government and military lawyers seeking comprehensive guidance in this difficult area of the law.

On the author:

Dr James Upcher is Lecturer in Law at Newcastle University. He has worked in private practice in a wide range of international law disputes, including disputes before the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. He also acts as a consultant on a wide range of international law issues for governments and non-governmental organisations.

(source: IL Reporter)

BOOK: David MORGAN-OWEN & Louis HALEWOOD (eds.), Economic Warfare and the Sea. Grand Strategies for Maritime Powers, 1650-1945 [Research in Maritime History, 55] (Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2020), 280 p. 9781789621594, 96 GBP

(image source: Liverpool UP)

Abstract:

Economic Warfare and the Sea examines the relationship between trade, maritime warfare, and strategic thought between the early modern period and the late-twentieth century. Featuring contributions from renown historians and rising scholars, this volume forwards an international perspective upon the intersection of maritime history, strategy, and diplomacy. Core themes include the role of ‘economic warfare’ in maritime strategic thought, prevalence of economic competition below the threshold of open conflict, and the role non-state actors have played in the prosecution of economic warfare. Using unique material from 18 different archives across six countries, this volume explores critical moments in the development of economic warfare, naval technology, and international law, including the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War. Distinct chapters also analyse the role of economic warfare in theories of maritime strategy, and what the future holds for the changing role of navies in the floating global economy of the twenty-first century.

On the editors:

 David Morgan-Owen is Lecturer in Defence Studies, Defence Studies Department, King's College London. Louis Halewood is the Philip Nicholas Lecturer in Maritime History at Plymouth University.

More information here.

BOOK: Gabriela A. FREI, Great Britain, International Law, and the Evolution of Maritime Strategic Thought, 1856 - 1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020). ISBN 9780198859932, £60.00

(Source: OUP)

Oxford University Press is publishing a book on British state practice and the evolution of international maritime law from the aftermath of the Crimean War to World War I.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Gabriela A. Frei addresses the interaction between international maritime law and maritime strategy in a historical context, arguing that both international law and maritime strategy are based on long-term state interests. Great Britain as the predominant sea power in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries shaped the relationship between international law and maritime strategy like no other power. This study explores how Great Britain used international maritime law as an instrument of foreign policy to protect its strategic and economic interests, and how maritime strategic thought evolved in parallel to the development of international legal norms.

Frei offers an analysis of British state practice as well as an examination of the efforts of the international community to codify international maritime law in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Great Britain as the predominant sea power as well as the world's largest carrier of goods had to balance its interests as both a belligerent and a neutral power. With the growing importance of international law in international politics, the volume examines the role of international lawyers, strategists, and government officials who shaped state practice. Great Britain's neutrality for most of the period between 1856 and 1914 influenced its state practice and its perceptions of a future maritime conflict. Yet, the codification of international maritime law at the Hague and London conferences at the beginning of the twentieth century demanded a reassessment of Great Britain's legal position.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gabriela A. Frei, Early Career Fellow, TORCH, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities

Gabriela A. Frei is an Associate Member of the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford and an Early Career Fellow at the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH). She holds a DPhil in History and a MSt in Historical Research from the University of Oxford, and she was awarded a degree of Licentiata Philosophiae (history, constitutional law, and English literature) from the University of Bern, Switzerland. She held postdoctoral research positions at the University of Cambridge, the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and the University of Oxford. Her research and publications focus on the relationship between international law, maritime strategy, and politics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She has a particular interest in the role of jurists in international politics, and how law shapes political agendas.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
1: The Sea as a Legal and Strategic Space
2: The Making of the Law of Neutrality
3: The Law of Neutrality and State Practice
4: The Codification of International Maritime Law
5: The Hague and London Conferences and the Rise of an International Legal Order
6: Maritime Strategic Thought and International Law
7: International Law and the Theory of War
Conclusion: Sea Power, International Law, and Future Wars

More info here

(source: ESCLH Blog)

BOOK: Edgar BONJOUR, Swiss Neutrality. Its History and Meaning (transl. Mary HOTTINGER) [Routledge Revivals] (London: Routledge, 2018), ISBN 9781138552159, 120 GBP

(image source: Routledge)

Abstract:

Up to a generation ago, the Swiss citizen lived with a feeling of security in foreign relations which we can hardly credit today. Neutrality has come to be taken so much for granted as the fundamental principle of the Federal constitution, and had been so generally recognized in Europe, that it seemed unthreatened and even inviolable. It blended with the republican and democratic ideal to form a national myth of almost religious sanctity. As the axiom of Swiss foreign policy, it had certainly suffered attack both in theory and in fact, but since such crises had always been successfully overcome, Switzerland’s faith in the inviolability of her neutrality had merely been confirmed. It was as if the country were girdled with high, protecting ramparts, behind which its people could go about their lawful occasions unmolested. It was in this period of calm in Switzerland’s foreign relations that international law assiduously sought a formula for the theory of neutrality.

(source: Routledge)

BOOK: Leos MÜLLER, Neutrality in World History (London: Routledge, 2018), 200 p. ISBN 9781351683067

(image source: Routledge)

Book abstract:

Neutrality in World History provides a cogent synthesis of five hundred years of neutrality in global history. Author Leos Müller argues that neutrality and neutral states, such as Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium have played an important historical role in implementing the free trade paradigm, shaping the laws of nations and humanitarianism, and serving as key global centers of trade and finance. Offering an intriguing alternative to dominant world history narratives, which hinge primarily on the international relations and policies of empires and global powers, Neutrality in World History provides students with a distinctive introduction to neutrality’s place in world history.

More information with the publisher.

BOOK: Roeland GOORTS, War, State and Society in Liège. How a Small State of the Holy Roman Empire Survived the Nine Years' War (1688-1697) [Avisos de Flandes; 17] (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2019), 418 p. ISBN 9789462701311, € 65

Book abstract:

War, State and Society in Liège is a fascinating case study of the consequences of war in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and touches upon wider issues in early modern history, such as small power diplomacy in the seventeenth century and during the Nine Years’ War.
For centuries, the small semi-independent Holy Roman Principality of Liège succeeded in preserving a non-belligerent role in European conflicts. During the Nine Years’ War (1688–1697), however, Liège’s leaders had to abolish the practice of neutrality. For the first time in its early modern history, the Prince-Bishopric had to raise a regular army, reconstruct ruined defence structures, and supply army contributions in both money and material.
The issues under discussion in War, State and Society in Liège offer the reader insight into how Liège politically protected its powerful institutions and how the local elite tried to influence the interplay between domestic and external diplomatic relationships.

More with the publisher.

(source: Standen en Landen/Anciens Pays et Assemblées d'États)

BOOK: Eric SCHNAKENBOURG (ed.), Neutres et neutralité dans l'espace atlantique durant le long XVIIIe siècle (1700-1820)/Neutrals and Neutrality in the Atlantic World during the Long Eighteenth Century (1700-1820). Une approche totale/A Global Approach (Bécherel: les Perséides, 2015), 491 p. ISBN 9782371250147, € 29,9

(image source: AHMUF)

Book abstract:

L’étude de la neutralité révèle les tensions entre les logiques de guerre et les logiques négociantes qui manifestent, autant l’une que l’autre, l’intensité des relations au sein du monde atlantique. C’est pourquoi la neutralité doit être étudiée comme une réalité transversale inscrite dans un espace marqué par la fluidité des circulations. Elle impose de dépasser les cadres nationaux pour promouvoir une approche ouverte des interconnections afin d’envisager à nouveaux frais les questions relatives à la neutralité et au rôle des neutres au cours du long XVIIIe siècle. Cette approche, qui participe du décloisonnement spatial et thématique de l’histoire atlantique, permet d’embrasser dans une même perspective aussi bien « les » Amériques, septentrionale, intertropicale et méridionale, que l’Europe. La neutralité atlantique est une arène au sein de laquelle se nouent des relations entre Européens, entre Américains, et entre Européens et Américains. Elle peut être envisagée comme une entrée dans la réflexion sur la formation d’un espace euroaméricain économique,juridique et diplomatique.

Table of contents:

Introduction :
Neutralité atlantique et atlantique de la neutralité
Atlantic neutrality and the neutrality of the Atlantic
Partie 1 : Les circulations et réseaux du commerce neutre / circulation and networks of neutral commerce
Ana Crespo Solana, Madrid, Cooperation or Neutrality? How the war affects business strategies: The case of Cadiz (1700-1740)
Holger Weiss, Turku, Trade and neutrality during times of war: An analysis of the Danish-European and Danish-African relationships on the Gold Coast during the second half of the eighteenth century
Eric Schnakenbourg, Nantes, Substitution aux échanges des temps de paix ou modalité de l’interlope ? Le commerce neutre et les colonies françaises des Antilles pendant la guerre de Sept Ans
Boris Deschanel, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, Les neutres dans les stratégies négociantes : l’exemple des sociétés Chauvet à Marseille (1785-1802)
Silvia Marzagalli, Nice, La navigation américaine pendant les French Wars (1793-1815) : une simple reconfiguration des circuits commerciaux par neutres interposés ?

Partie 2 : Les acteurs de la neutralité atlantique / The actors of Atlantic neutrality
Barry Stiefel, Charleston, Jews as Neutral Middlemen in the Long XVIIIth century Atlantic World
Manuel Covo, Warwick, Droit de la neutralité, pratiques de mobilité marchande et catégorisation politique à l’ère des révolutions : entre Antilles et États-Unis (années 1790)
Dominique Goncalvès, Toulouse, Le commerce de Cuba avec les neutres à travers les Actes de sessions du Consulat royal, 1797-1807.
Clément Thibaud, Nantes, América libre : les Neutres et la naissance du premier républicanisme hispano-américain (1793-1820)

Partie 3 : Les poles du commerce neutre / the centers of neutral commerce
Victor Enthoven, Amsterdam, ‘‘The unlimited cupidity of the Dutch merchants’’: St. Eustatius and Anglo-Dutch controversy over neutral rights, 1680-1780
François Antoine, Bruxelles, La guerre d’Indépendance américaine et la tentative de relance du commerce international des Pays-Bas méridionaux
Miguel Dantas da Cruz, Lisbonne, The Lisbon international trade and the ambiguities of the Portuguese Neutrality (1795-1807)
Ale Pålsson, Stockholm, Common Ground: Swedish neutrality and transit trade in S:t Barthélemy 1800-1820

Partie 4 : La neutralité dans les rivalités entre états / Neutrality in the interstate rivalry
François Ternat, Rouen, La neutralisation de la frontière. Un essai de solution diplomatique en Amérique du Nord à la veille de la guerre de Sept Ans
Marc Belissa, Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, Faire la guerre pour avoir le droit d’être neutre ? Les enjeux politiques de la neutralité américaine (1776-1812)
Nicolas Terrien, Nantes, Les neutres, la course maritime et l’effondrement de l’empire atlantique de la monarchie espagnole (1810-1824)

CONCLUSION French
CONCLUSION English

More information here (publisher's website).

PAPER: Peter HILPOLD, How to Construe a Myth: Neutrality within the United Nations System Under Special Consideration of the Austrian Case

(image source: ESIL)

Prof. Peter Hilpold (Innsbruck) posted a paper on Austrian neutrality in the United Nations System, presented at this Interest Group's Workshop at the ESIL Research Forum (Granada, 30-31 March 2017).

Abstract:

In the 19th century neutrality was a highly appreciated concept. In the 20th century it has widely lost relevance and in principle it should be incompatible with UN membership. However, also under the UN system some states have opted for neutrality and it can be argued that there is still space for this status within the universal peace order. In fact, this peace order is far from perfect. There are several lacunae in the prohibition of the use of force and this concept is open to different interpretations. New challenges, such as international terrorism, are emerging that could threaten the absolute prohibition of the use of force. It is contended here that neutrals could play an important role when it comes to find an interpretation of this prohibition that best could reconcile the goals of peace and security with the overall - still imperfect - structure of the UN system. These questions are analysed with primary reference to Austrian neutrality which on the hand seems obsolete but on the other is forcefully looking for a new meaning.  

More information here.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: ESIL RESEARCH FORUM, Granada: Workshop "Neutrality in the History of International Law - Myths and Evolving Realities"; DEADLINE 15 DEC 2016

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

No law is neutral. Law is always a mirror of the value-system and the power structure  underlying  any  given  society  at  any  point  in  time and international law has never been an exception to this rule. A different, and yet related matter, is the extent to which the law applies equally (or not) to all members of any given society, the extent to which these members participate as equals (or not) in the formation of international law and the extent to which the law is effectively (or not) applied in an objective and un-biased manner (what is, commonly known, as 'neutrally') by international bodies and adjudicators charged with applying it to international situations or with settling disputes between any given parties. The aspiration towards 'neutrality'  (as  such  conceived)  of  international  law  in  its  quest  for  an ever-greater  legitimacy,  has, undoubtedly, evolved  throughout  different historical  periods.  

Neutrality  in  the  history  of  international  law can,  on the other hand, also be understood as a legal institution. Neutrality as a legal  institution  was  born  as a  synonym  for  emancipation  from  a  rigorous moral  top-down  juridical-moral  framework  inherited  from  theology. Its theoretical  blossoming  went  in  parallel  with  the  consolidation  of  the principle  of  sovereign  equality  of  nations  and  the  principle  of  non-intervention in domestic affairs during the transition of the classical law of nations to modern international law. Since the establishment of the first international  institutions  with  universal  and  permanent  character, neutrality  as  a  legal  institution  has  continued  to  evolve  against  the background  provided  by  the  ever-shifting  chessboard  of  international relations  and  proliferating  international  institutions. 

Finally,  the relationship of neutrality and the history of international law can be also examined  through  the  lenses  of  the  neutrality  (or  lack  of)  of  history writing itself. If all history is, as B. Croce noted, contemporary history (by which it is generally meant that all history writing is, in one degree or other, done from the perspective of the present and also that all history writing  constitutes  an  intervention  in  the  present)  could  any  historical account  possibly  aspire  to  be  considered  a  'neutral'  history  of international law? And, if so, under what criteria? 

    

The  Interest  Group  of  the  History  of  International  Law  welcomes  abstracts that  engage  critically  with  any  of  these  dimensions  of  neutrality  in  the history  of  international  law  or  a  combination  thereof  in  historical perspective  by  reference  to  relevant  episodes  in  the  history  of international law and/or different historiographical schools.   

  

Each submission should include: 

– An abstract of no more than 400 words, the intended language of presentation, 

– A short curriculum vitae containing the author’s  name,  institutional  affiliation,  contact  information  and  e-mail address. 

Applications should be submitted to both Ignacio de la Rasilla del Moral (ignacio.delarasillaydelmoral@graduateinstitute.ch);  and Frederik  Dhondt (frederik.dhondt@vub.ac.be)   by  15th December  2016.  All  applicants  will  be notified of the outcome of the selection process by 15th January 2017.  

Selection will be based on scholarly merit and with regard to producing an engaging  workshop,  without  prejudice  to  gender,  seniority,  language  or geographical  location.  Please  note  that  the  ESIL  Interest  Group  on  the History  of  International  Law  is  unable  to  provide  funds  to  cover  the conference registration fee or related transport and accommodation costs.  

More information on the Research Forum (30-31 March 2017) can be found on the website of the European Society of International Law or on the Granada Law School website.

LECTURE: World War One and the End of Neutrality: A Question Asked in the Wrong Way ? (Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium, Committee for Legal History/VUB CORE, 7 Apr 2016)

The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium (Committee for Legal History) and the Research Group CORE (Contextual Research in Law) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) invite prof. dr. Eric Schnakenbourg (Université de Nantes/CRHIA/Institut Universitaire de France) for a lecture on the topic:

"World War One and the End of Neutrality:
A Question Asked in the Wrong Way ?"

Prof. dr. Eric Schnakenbourg is full-time professor of History at the University of Nantes and Director of the Research Center on International and Atlantic History. He published his Habilitation à diriger des recherches with the Presses Universitaires de Rennes in 2013 (Entre la guerre et la paix. Neutralite et relations internationales, XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles), and, earlier, his doctoral dissertation on France and Northern Europe in the early 18th Century with Honoré Campion.

The event will take place in the Academy Palace (Simon Stevin-Room), from 12:30 to 14:00.



Registration is mandatory, since the number of seats is limited. Click here for the event page.

CONFERENCE: "Le Monde des Neutres" (Prangins Castle, 5 June 2015); DEADLINE 25 MAY 2015

 

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

The Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs and the University of Lausanne organise a colloquium on neutrality on 5 June 2015 in the National Museum of Prangins. Visitors can combine the event with a visit to the exhibition "La Suisse redessinée. De Napoléon au Congrès de Vienne".

Programme:

09:30-10:00
Welcome

10:00-12:30
Béla Kapossy (Lausanne), Introduction

10:15
André Holenstein (Bern), "Péripéties d'une politique de neutralité. Les relations extérieures de la Diète fédérale 1813-1815"

11:00
Peter Lehmann (Lausanne), "La neutralité comme projet de réforme"

11:45
Bela Kapossy (Lausanne), "Le commerce des neutres et le protectionnisme au 19e siècle"

12:30
Lunch break

14:00
Grégoire Bron (Neuchâtel), "La neutralité suisse face à l'immigration politique, 1815-1848"

14:45
Sacha Zala (Director of the Documents Diplomatiques Suisses), "Axiomes et apories de la neutralité suisse au 20e siècle"

15:30
Thomas Maissen (Director of the German Historical Institute in Paris), "Perspectives historiques et politiques de la neutralité suisse"

16:15
Plenary discussion under the direction of Valentin Zellweger (Director of the Public International Law Department, Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

17:15
Drinks

 Practical information:

Registration until 25 May 2015 at info.prangins@smn.admin.ch.