SOME PROBLEMS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 



BY CHARLES NOBLE GREGORY 



[Charles Noble Gregory, Dean of the College of Law since 1901, State University 

 of Iowa. b. Unadilla, Otsego County, New York, August 27, 1851. A.B. 

 University of Wisconsin, 1871; LL.B. ibid. 1872; A. M. ibid. 1874; LL.D.ibid. 

 1901. Associate Dean of the College of Law, State University of Wisconsin, 

 1894-1901. Member and a Vice-President of American Bar Association ; Inter- 

 national Law Association ; and one of the Vice-Presidcnts of its Antwerp Con- 

 ference, 1903; Political Science Association. Author of numerous legal articles 

 in leading law publications of the United States and England.] 



WHEN Hugo Grotius published his great work on international 

 law he entitled it Concerning the Law of Peace and War. That obvi- 

 ous division of this great subject continues after the lapse of nearly 

 three centuries. 



" The law of war," says Professor Holland, " as is well known, 

 consists of two great chapters, dealing respectively with the relations 

 of one belligerent to the other and with the relations of each bellig- 

 erent to neutrals." x He goes on to show that the former has been 

 discussed for at least six centuries, not to mention classical antiquity. 

 The latter is comparatively modern, dating as a separate subject 

 only from the eighteenth century, " though it has already come far 

 to surpass in complexity and importance the law of belligerency." 



It is with some problems in this surpassing branch of the law of 

 war, " the relations of each belligerent to neutrals," that we wish 

 to deal. 



The Treatment of Neutral Blockade Runners 



In discussing in print during the last year the law of blockade, 

 the writer said that while " the older writers approved of the corporal 

 punishment of the blockade-runner," yet " this is now wholly 

 obsolete, and a confiscation of the ship, and, by the rule of infection, 

 of any cargo belonging to the ship-owner, and of any portion of the 

 cargo belonging to an owner cognizant of the blockade or who 

 makes the master his agent, is the sole punishment." 



A very eminent and gifted English judge, whose name has for 

 two generations been especially and most honorably identified with 

 public law, --Sir Walter Phillimore, --by letter, courteously dis- 

 cussing the proposition, suggested to the writer that the rule could 

 hardly be considered as settled; that it must be held at least in doubt. 

 Sir Walter cited the practice of the United States in the war with 

 the Confederacy, and especially the imprisonment of the late Sir 



1 Studies in International Law, by T. E. Holland (Oxford, 1898), p. 113. 



2 Yale Law Journal, April, 1903. 



