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17 - Maritime Warfare in Old Regime Europe

from Part II - International Law in Old Regime Europe (1660–1775)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2025

By
Stefano Cattelan
General editor
Randall Lesaffer
Randall Lesaffer
Affiliation:
KU Leuven and Tilburg University
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Summary

This chapter offers a discussion on the laws of war, or jus in bello, as the previous one. However, it provides an exclusive focus on maritime warfare. Old Regime Europe was marked by the expansion of permanent state battlefleets and the strengthening of naval administrations. At the same time, a complementarity between public and private forms of maritime warfare, notably privateering, persisted as one of the defining aspects of naval warfare. The chapter deals with the specificity of waging war at sea and related legal issues. It draws both from state-military practice and from the specialised legal literature that started to appear at the time. Subjects which are covered include the main rules of naval warfare, privateering, the treatment of prisoners of war, the bombardment of coastal cities, prize law and the role of admiralty courts. Particular attention is devoted to the issue of maritime neutrality. Indeed, the recurrent tension between the respective rights and duties of neutrals and belligerents assumed great relevance in this period, being often dealt with in international treaties and legal scholars’ treatises.

Keywords

Old Regime Europelaw of nationsmaritime warfareneutralityjus in belloprivateeringpiracy
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of International Law , pp. 551 - 587
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading

Alimento, Antonella (ed.), War, Trade and Neutrality. Europe and the Mediterranean in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Milan: Franco Angeli 2011).Google Scholar
Alimento, Antonella, and Stapelbroek, Koen (eds.), The Politics of Commercial Treaties in the Eighteenth Century (Cham: Springer International Publishing 2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baugh, Daniel A., The Global Seven Years War, 1754–1763. Britain and France in a Great Power Contest (Harlow and New York: Longman 2011).Google Scholar
Black, Jeremy, The British Seaborne Empire (New Haven and London: Yale University Press 2004).Google Scholar
Bromley, John S., Corsairs and Navies, 1660–1760 (London: Hambledon Press 1987).Google Scholar
Calafat, Guillaume, Une mer jalousiée. Contribution à l’histoire de la souveraineté (Méditerranée, XVIIe siècle) (Paris: Seuil 2019).Google Scholar
Chaline, Olivier, La mer et la France. Quand les Bourbons voulaient dominer les océans (Paris: Flammarion 2016).Google Scholar
Clark, George N., The Dutch Alliance and the War against French Trade, 1688–1697 (Manchester: Manchester University Press 1923).Google Scholar
Davies, J. D., James, Alan and Rommelse, Gijs (eds.), Ideologies of Western Naval Power, c. 1500–1815 (New York: Routledge 2020).Google Scholar
Dessert, Daniel, La Royale. Vaisseaux et marins du Roi-Soleil (Paris: Fayard 1996).Google Scholar
Glete, Jan, Navies and Nations. Warships, Navies, and State Building in Europe and America, 1500–1860 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International 1993).Google Scholar
Harding, Richard, Seapower and Naval Warfare, 1650–1830 (London: Routledge 2002).Google Scholar
Jessup, Philip C., and Deák, Francis (eds.), Neutrality. Its History, Economics and Law, vol. I , The Origins (New York: Columbia University Press 1935).Google Scholar
Kulsrud, Carl J., Maritime Neutrality to 1780. A History of the Main Principles Governing Neutrality and Belligerency to 1780 (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1936).Google Scholar
Morieux, Renaud, The Society of Prisoners. Anglo-French Wars and Incarceration in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naguib Leerberg, Nora, The Legal Politics of Neutrality in the Age of Privateering. Martin Hübner’s Law of Neutrality and Prize (Oslo: Dreyersforlag 2015).Google Scholar
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Schnakenbourg, Éric, Entre la guerre et la paix. Neutralité et relations internationales, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes 2013).Google Scholar
Schnakenbourg, Éric (ed.), Neutres et neutralité dans l’espace atlantique durant le long XVIIIe siècle (1700–1820). Une approche globale (Bécherel: Editions Les Perséides 2015).Google Scholar
Shovlin, John, Trading with the Enemy. Britain, France, and the 18th-Century Quest for a Peaceful World Order (New Haven and London: Yale University Press 2021).Google Scholar
Stapelbroek, Koen (ed.), Trade and War. The Neutrality of Commerce in the Inter-State System (Helsinki: Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies 2011).Google Scholar
Villiers, Patrick, Des vaisseaux et des hommes. La marine de Louis XV et Louis XVI (Paris: Fayard 2021).Google Scholar

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