BOOK: Stefano CATTELAN & Frederik DHONDT (eds.), Small Power Neutrality and the Law of The Sea in the Long Eighteenth Century (ca. 1650–1800). Law as Argument in the Pelagic Arena [History of European Political and Constitutional Thought, eds. Mark SOMOS, Erica BENNER & Laszlo KONTLER] (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2025), ISBN 978-90-04-72442-6, €133,56

(image source: Brill)

Abstract:

This volume by both younger and more established specialists of legal, maritime, diplomatic, and political history covers the nuanced interplay of neutrality and the law of the sea within Western, Central, and Eastern Europe, emphasising the opening up of the world in the early modern period (i.e. Africa, North America, and the Caribbean). The various faces of neutrality, both in law and politics, appear through commercial, administrative, and geopolitical practical cases and in the writings of famous legal writers. By linking up different sets of knowledge, a kaleidoscope of power configurations and arguments guides the reader through the labyrinth of trade, sea power, and negotiations. 

Contributors:

Stefano Cattelan, Frederik Dhondt, John Freeman, Nora Naguib Leerberg, Christian Pfister-Langanay, Leos Müller, Stephen C. Neff, and Victor Wilson.

Read more here: DOI 10.1163/9789004728974.