Reprisals and use of force under the law of nations (13th-18th centuries)

Forcible reprisals constitute a crucial, inherent part of the tradition of use of force in Western international law. A distinction needs to be made between historic reprisals (13th-18th centuries) and modern reprisals, which emerged around the turn of the 19th century. Whereas modern forcible reprisals entail the use of force by a state against another state in retaliation of a prior violation of an international right, historic forcible reprisals concern the authorization by the government of a state to a private individual to seize, by force if necessary, the goods of any subject of another state in compensation for an injury committed by a subject of the latter state. The purpose of this project is to analyze the three major forms of historic forcible reprisals - particular reprisals, general reprisals in peace, general reprisals in war - as legal institutions and to establish their place in the framework of international use of force law of the periods under scrutiny. In addition, the development of general reprisals into modern reprisals will be studied. The project covers the history of historic reprisals from the 13th to 18th centuries. It focuses on North-Western Europe and the four major maritime powers around the North Sea, France, Britain, the Republic and Spain (Spanish Netherlands). The project uses both historica scholarship as well as sources which map diplomatic and legal practice and confronts them with one another.