Effects of the Revival of Commerce. Commerce, and especially maritime commerce, cannot long be carried on without its participants agreeing upon some rules for its protection and regulation. All ships engaged in it are exposed alike to the depredations of pirates and the perils of the sea. The necessity of policing harbors, of lighting dangerous coasts, of maintaining adequate port facilities, and of providing some. means of enforcing maritime contracts, must also have received early attention. As the Mediterranean cities were themselves independent, or were situated in different states, and acknowledged no common superior, such rules, to have been regarded as obligatory, must have commended themselves to those engaged in commercial pursuits, must have existed with their tacit or expressed consent, and their binding force could have endured only so long as they were generally regarded as just and equitable.

Early Codes of Maritime Law. Primitive codes of maritime law, fulfilling most of these conditions, and so possessing some of the characteristics of international law, are found to exist in the early sea-laws of the commercial cities of southern and western Europe.' The most important of these were:

(a.) The "Judgments of Oléron." This was a body of regulations governing the navigation of the western seas, and is believed to have been drawn up in the eleventh century.' Its authority was long recognized in most of the Atlantic ports of France, and for this reason portions of it were incorporated in the Maritime Ordinances of Louis XIV."

(b.) The "Consolato del Mare," or "Customs of the Sea," was a more extensive collection of rules applicable to the decision of questions arising in commerce and navigation, both in peace and war. It also contained rules defining the rights of belligerents and neutrals, as they were then sanctioned and understood. It was probably drawn up in the twelfth century, the earliest authentic copy having been published in Barce

I Azuni, Maritime Law, pp. 253-379; Dominion of the Sea, pp. 116-119.

2

Ibid.

3 Dominion of the Sea, London (1707), pp. 116-119, 120–173.

lona in 1494.' Its authors are unknown, but their work exhibits a thorough knowledge of the Roman maritime law, of the early maritime customs of the commercial cities of the Mediterranean, and of the principles of contract, as applied to trade and navigation. Great weight was attributed to the work by the commission to whom Louis XIV. intrusted the preparation of his celebrated Maritime Ordinances. As showing its general acceptance among maritime powers, Grotius speaks of the "Consolato del Mare" as containing the constitutions of France, Spain, Syria, Cyprus, the Balearic Isles, Venice, and Genoa. Its provisions on the subject of prize law, besides the concurrence of the states above named, coincided with all the treaties relating to their provisions made during several succeeding centuries,' and they agree at present with the maritime codes of Europe, notwithstanding many attempts to reverse their regulations.*

(c.) The "Guidon de la Mar." This is a work of somewhat less comprehensive character than the "Consolato del Mare," and is of considerably later date. It was drawn up towards the close of the sixteenth century, at the supposed instance of the merchants of Rouen. It treats principally of the law of maritime insurance, the laws of prize, and contains a code of regulations governing the issue of letters of marque and reprisal. Other Codes of Maritime Law. The "Maritime Law of Wisbuy,' ," the "Customs of Amsterdam," the "Laws of Antwerp," and the "Constitutions of the Hanseatic League names applied to bodies of sea-laws similar to those already described, which were recognized in the cities of northwestern Europe, on the North and Baltic seas.

996

are

These early systems had some elements in common. The authorship of none of them is fully known. The most gen

1I Halleck, chap. i. § 13; Holtzendorff, §§ 76, 77; the oldest edition of the Consolato is in the Catalan dialect and was printed in Barcelona in 1502, by order of the consuls of that city, from ancient manuscripts. Wildman, Institutes, p. 20.

2

Manning, Law of Nations (Amos edition), p. 15. 3 Ibid. 4 • Ibid. • Dominion of the Sea, pp. 174190.

$78.

Ibid. pp. 190-206; Holtzendorff,

erally accepted opinion is that they were drawn up by commissions of merchants or lawyers representing different cities, thus giving them in some degree the character of commercial treaties. All of them contain provisions extracted from the earliest-known maritime code, the Rhodian Laws, which were incorporated at an early date into the general body of Roman law, and were recognized and sanctioned by the emperors Tiberius and Hadrian.' In some of them the subjects of neutrality and neutral rights are so broadly and liberally treated as to leave but little room for improvement in the codes of more recent times. All of them evince, on the part of their authors, a familiarity with the Civil Law, and each, in turn, exercised a decided influence in the preparation of those which followed it."

DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

The sea-laws, however, applied to but one phase of international relations-maritime commerce-and some of them had been in existence several centuries before the intercourse of states on land had become sufficiently general to make it possible to deduce any of its underlying principles, or even to formulate the common usages of states in peace or war. The nations of Europe during the period between the fourth and fifteenth centuries were in a formative, transition state, of which little detailed history remains. General causes were at work, however, some of which tended to favor, and some to retard, the growth of international law. Some of these were: The Teutonic Migrations. The Germanic peoples who passed the Rhine and the Danube in the first five centuries of the Christian era, were, in the main, uncivilized tribes, or nations, whose migrations were due to the operation of two forces -one, constant, a desire to seek new homes in regions having a more genial climate and a more fertile soil than were to be

1 Manning, pp. 14-21. "Hosack, pp. 163-172; Pomeroy, § 40; Holtzendorff, §§ 75-78;

Lawrence, Int. Law, §§ 27-29; Manning, pp. 14-18; Levi, pp. 13-15.

found in the inhospitable regions in which they were located when the movement began; the other, casual and occasional, but none the less powerful, the irresistible pressure of ruder and less civilized neighbors from the east. Their rulers were leaders in war only, whose title to command, derived from their valor or military capacity, was based upon the loyalty of their followers, who accompanied them less in the quality of soldiers than as companions in quest of new habitations. The conquests which they effected within the boundaries of the empire resembled more nearly acquisitions of land by a people in search of homes, than occupations of hostile territory as that term is now understood. As the number of the invaders bore a great proportion to the population of the Roman provinces which they occupied, and as the provincials were at the same time enervated by long peace, the expeditions were no sooner completed than all danger of resistance was at an end. After dividing among themselves such lands as they thought proper to appropriate, the invaders separated and gradually became merged, or amalgamated, in the population of the territories in which they had thus established themselves.'

The Feudal System. This institution, as a factor in the historical development of modern Europe, was the remote rather than the immediate consequence of the Teutonic migrations which have already been explained. The fiefs held, at first, in life tenancy, in time became hereditary in the families of their possessors, and the barons, aiming at complete political independence, and but feebly held in check by their feudal superiors, finally became practically supreme in their own domains. Without their territories they acknowledged, as will presently appear, a qualified allegiance to the Pope in spiritual affairs, and there was a similar recognition, in some instances, of the position and authority of the German em

1 De Lolme, Const. of England, pp. 148, 149; Church, The beginning of the Middle Ages, int. pp. 1-13; Manning, pp. 14, 18-21; Snow, §2; Walker, Science of Int. Law, pp.

63-65; Holtzendorff, § 70; I Halleck, pp. 4-6; Bluntschli, int. pp. 15, 16; Risley, pp. 15-16; Hosack, pp. 23-26.

peror. Such recognition, however, was at best but slight in either case, and was not regarded by the feudal lords as constituting a serious restriction either upon their external independence or their internal authority. While the system lasted its effects were, on the whole, unfavorable to the growth of international law. Europe was divided into a large number of small states, or groups of states, ruled by dukes and barons, each in a condition of constant hostility with his neighbors. Intercourse by land was always difficult, and at times impossible; internal commerce could not exist, and the growth of towns, as centres of trade and manufacturing industry, was hampered and restricted. War was the rule, and peace the exception; the rules governing the operations of war were cruel and harsh in the extreme. Quarter was rarely given; the garrisons of besieged towns were put to the sword; prisoners of war were reduced to slavery; and so great was the mutual distrust of sovereigns that they maintained but little intercourse with each other, and obtained such information as they desired by questionable means-through agents or spies.

The system culminated when the modern states of Europe began to assume something of their present territorial form. The great monarchies could only grow in size and strength at the expense of the power and possessions of the feudal nobles, and so soon as the former were securely established the power and importance of the latter began to decline.'

The Institution of Chivalry. This came into existence during the feudal period; it was in great part an outgrowth of the Crusades and contributed powerfully to ameliorate some phases of the laws of war. Its code applied at first only to the conduct of knights towards each other; but, in so far as it recognized and practised, to some extent, the principles of Christianity, its effects were soon felt in the milder treatment of captives and slaves, and in the different and stricter

1 Woolsey, § 8; Walker, Science of Int. Law, pp. 42, 43; Holtzendorff, §§ 72, 73; Ward, Inquiry, pp. 337-395; Klüber, § 11; Hosack, pp.

23-62; Lawrence, Int. Law, §§ 2729; Revue de Droit International, vol. xxiii. pp. 541-560.