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, 14)

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

Outsmarting Great Powers: Neutrals In Maritime Multipolarity | Drs. S. Cattelan &. F. Dhondt

Stefano Cattelan is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Research Group CORE) and Adjunct Professor at the Brussels School of Governance. His research focuses on the history of international law and the law of the sea between the 16th and 18th centuries and has been funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO).

Frederik Dhondt is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Research Group CORE) and Voluntary Collaborator at the Ghent Legal History Institute and the Gustave Rolin Jaequemyns Institute of International Law (GRILI). His publications focus on the history of legal argumentation and diplomacy from the 18th century onwards, such as Balance of Power and Norm Hierarchy: Franco-British Diplomacy after the Peace of Utrecht (Brill, 2015).