[527] See above, [vol. I. § 37].
[528] See Geffcken in Holtzendorff, IV. pp. 614-615.
Neutrality during the Middle Ages.
§ 286. During the Middle Ages matters changed in so far only as, in the latter part of this period, belligerents did not exactly force third parties to a choice; but legal duties and rights connected with neutrality did not exist. A State could maintain that it was no party to a war, although it furnished one of the belligerents with money, troops, and other kinds of assistance. To prevent such assistance, which was in no way considered illegal, treaties were frequently concluded, during the latter part of the Middle Ages, for the purpose of specially stipulating that the parties were not to assist each other's enemies in any way during time of war, and were to prevent their subjects from rendering such assistance. Through the influence of such treaties the difference between a really and feigned impartial attitude of third States during war became recognised, and neutrality, as an institution of International Law, gradually developed during the sixteenth century.
Of great importance was the fact that the Swiss Confederation, in contradistinction to her policy during former times, made it a matter of policy from the end of the sixteenth century always to remain neutral during wars between other States. Although this former neutrality of the Swiss can in no way be compared with modern neutrality, since Swiss mercenaries for centuries afterwards fought in all European wars, the Swiss Government itself succeeded in each instance in taking up and preserving such an attitude of impartiality as complied with the current rules of neutrality.
It should be mentioned that the collection of rules and customs regarding Maritime Law which goes under the name of Consolato del Mare made its appearance about the middle of the fourteenth century. One of the rules there laid down, that in time of war enemy goods on neutral vessels may be confiscated, but that, on the other hand, neutral goods on enemy vessels must be restored, became of great importance, since Great Britain acted accordingly from the beginning of the eighteenth century until the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854.[529]
Neutrality during the Seventeenth Century.
§ 287. At the time of Grotius, neutrality was recognised as an institution of International Law, although such institution was in its infancy only and needed a long time to reach its present range. Grotius did not know, or at any rate did not make use of, the term neutrality.[530] He treats neutrality in the very short seventeenth chapter of the Third Book on the Law of War and Peace, under the head De his, qui in bello medii sunt, and establishes in § 3 two doubtful rules only. The first is that neutrals shall do nothing which may strengthen a belligerent whose cause is unjust, or which may hinder the movements of a belligerent whose cause is just. The second rule is that in a war in which it is doubtful whose cause is just, neutrals shall treat both belligerents alike, in permitting the passage of troops, in supplying provisions for the troops, and in not rendering assistance to persons besieged.
[530] That the term was known at the time of Grotius may be inferred from the fact that Neumayr de Ramsla in 1620 published his work Von der Neutralität und Assistenz ... in Kriegszeiten; see Nys in R.I. XVII. (1885), p. 78.