in the middle of the fourteenth century; the Laws of Oléron, a collection, made in the twelfth century, of decisions given by the maritime court of Oléron in France; the Rhodian Laws, a very old collection of maritime laws which partly date back as far as the eighth century; the Tabula Amalfitana, the maritime laws of the town of Amalfi in Italy, which date at latest from the tenth century; the Leges Wisbuenses, a collection of maritime laws of Wisby on the island of Gothland, in Sweden, dating from the fourteenth century. The growth of international trade caused also the rise of the controversy regarding the freedom of the high seas (see below, § 248), which indirectly influenced the growth of an International Law (see below, §§ 248-250). (3) A third factor was the numerous leagues of trading towns for the protection of their trade and trading citizens. The most celebrated of these leagues is the Hanseatic, formed in the thirteenth century. These leagues stipulated for arbitration on controversies between their member-towns. They acquired trading privileges in foreign States. They even waged war, when necessary, for the protection of their interests. (4) A fourth factor was the growing custom on the part of the States of sending and receiving permanent legations. In the Middle Ages the Pope alone had a permanent legation at the court of the Frankish kings. Later on, the Italian Republics, as Venice and Florence for instance, were the first States to send out ambassadors, who took their residence for several years in the capitals of the States they were sent to. At last, from the end of the fifteenth century, it became a universal custom that the kings of the different States kept permanent legations at one another's capital. The consequence was that an uninterrupted opportunity was given for discussing and deliberating common international interests. And since the position of the ambassadors in foreign countries had to be taken into consideration, international rules as regards such position grew gradually up. (5) A fifth factor was the custom of the great States of keeping standing armies, a custom which dates from the fifteenth century also. The uniform and stern discipline in these armies favoured the rise of more universal rules and practices of warfare. (6) A sixth factor was the Renaissance and the Reformation. The Renaissance of science and art in the fifteenth century, together with the resurrection of the knowledge of antiquity, revived the philosophical and aesthetical ideals of Greek life and transferred them to modern life. Through their influence the spirit of the Christian religion took precedence of its letter. The conviction awoke everywhere that the principles of Christianity ought to unite the Christian world more than they had done hitherto, and that these principles ought to be observed in matters international as much as in matters national. The Reformation, on the other hand, made an end to the spiritual mastership of the Pope over the civilised world. Protestant States could not recognise the claim of the Pope to arbitrate as of right in their conflicts either between one another or between themselves and Catholic States. The time of Grotius. II DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAW OF NATIONS AFTER GROTIUS Lawrence, §§ 29-53-Halleck, I. pp. 12-45-Walker, History, I. pp. 138-202-Taylor, §§ 65-95-Nys, I. pp. 19-46-Martens, I. §§ 21-33-Fiore, I. Nos. 32-52-Calvo, I. pp. 32-101-Bonfils, Nos. 87-146-Despagnet, Nos. 20-27-Wheaton, "Histoire des progrès du droit des gens en Europe" (1841)-Pierantoni, "Storia del diritto internazionale nel secolo XIX." (1876)—Hosack, “Rise and Growth of the Law of Nations" (1883), pp. 227-320-Brie, “Die Fortschritte des Völkerrechts seit dem Wiener Congress " (1890). § 43. The seventeenth century found a multitude of independent States established and crowded on the comparatively small continent of Europe. Many interests and aims knitted these States together into a community of States. International lawlessness was henceforth an impossibility. This was the reason for the fact that Grotius's work "De Jure Belli ac Pacis libri III.," which appeared in 1625, won the ear of the different States, their rulers, and their writers on matters international. Since a Law of Nations was now a necessity, since many principles of such a law were already more or less recognised and appeared again among the doctrines of Grotius, since the system of Grotius supplied a legal basis to most of those international relations which were at the time considered as wanting such basis, the book of Grotius obtained such a world-wide influence that he is correctly styled the "Father of the Law of Nations." It would be very misleading and in no way congruent with the facts of history to believe that Grotius's doctrines were as a body at once universally accepted. No such thing happened, nor could have happened. What did soon take place was that whenever an international question of legal importance arose, Grotius's book was consulted, and its authority was so overwhelming that in many cases its rules were considered right. How those rules of Grotius, which have more or less quickly been recognised by the common consent of the writers on International Law, have gradually received similar acceptance at the hands of the Family of Nations is a process of development which in each single phase cannot be ascertained. It can only be stated that at the end of the seventeenth century the civilised States consider themselves bound by a Law of Nations the rules of which were to a great extent the rules of Grotius. This does not mean that these rules have from the end of that century never been broken. On the contrary, they have frequently been broken. But whenever this occurred, the States concerned maintained either that they did not intend to break these rules, or that their acts were in harmony with them, or that they were justified by just causes and circumstances in breaking them. And the development of the Law of Nations did not come to a standstill with the reception of the bulk of the rules of Grotius. More and more rules were gradually required and therefore gradually grew. All the historical important events and facts of international life from the time of Grotius down to our own have, on the one hand, given occasion to the manifestation of the existence of a Law of Nations, and, on the other hand, in their turn made the Law of Nations constantly and gradually develop into a more perfect and more complete system of legal rules. It serves my purpose to divide the history of the development of the Law of Nations from the time of Grotius into six periods-namely, 1648-1721, The period 1721-1789, 1789-1815, 1815-1856, 1856-1874, 1874-1899. § 44. The ending of the Thirty Years' War through the Westphalian Peace of 1648 is the first event of great importance after the death of Grotius in 1645. What makes remarkable the meetings of Osnaburg, where the Protestant Powers met, and Münster, where the Catholic Powers met, is the fact that there was for the first time in history a European Congress assembled for the purpose of settling matters international by common consent of the Powers. With the exception of England, Russia, and Poland, all the important Christian States were represented at this congress, as were also the majority of the minor Powers. The arrangements made by this congress show what a great change had taken place in the condition of matters international. The Swiss Confederation and the Netherlands were recognised as Independent States. The 355 different States which belonged to the German Empire were practically, although not theroetically, recognised as independent States which formed a Confederation under the Emperor as its head. Of these 355 States, 150 were secular States governed by hereditary monarchs (Electors, Dukes, Landgraves, and the like), 62 were free-city States, and 123 were ecclesiastical States governed by archbishops and other Church dignitaries. The theory of the unity of the civilised world under the German Emperor and the Pope as its temporal and spiritual heads was buried for ever. A multitude of recognised independent States formed now a community on the basis of equality of all its members. The conception of the European equilibrium made its appearance and became an implicit principle as a guaranty for the independence of |