Power, Law and the End of Privateering

This book offers an exciting new take on the relationship between law and power, exposing the delicate balance between great powers and small states that is necessary to create and enforce norms across the globe. The 1856 Declaration of Paris marks the precise moment when international law became universal, and is the template for creating new norms until today. Moreover, the treaty was an aggressive and successful British move to end privateering forever – then the United States' main weapon in case of war with Britain. Based on previously untapped archival sources, Jan Lemnitzer shows why Britain granted generous neutral rights in the Crimean War, how the Europeans forced the United States to respect international law during the American Civil War, and why Bismarck threatened violent redemption during the Franco-German War of 1870/71. The powerful conclusion exposes the 19th century roots of our present international system, and why it is as fragile as before the First World War.

Jan Martin Lemnitzer is Lecturer in History at Pembroke College, Oxford, UK. He obtained his PhD in International History from the London School Economics, UK, before winning a postdoctoral fellowship from the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. Previously, he was Director of Studies at Oxford's Changing Character of War programme and taught at Christ Church, Oxford, UK.