Neutral Rights and Obligations in the Anglo-Boer WarCampbell, Robert Granville
History
Neutral Rights and Obligations in the Anglo-Boer War
Campbell, Robert Granville
Neutrality; South African War, 1899-1902
in the former case where a real servitude, a right _in rem_, was
possessed, to stop the use of the road would be analogous to the seizure
by a neutral of a belligerent warship to prevent its being used against
the enemy. In the case where the treaty grants the so-called right _in
personam_, a merely contractual or promissory right exists, and the
exercise of the right would be analogous to the sale of a warship to a
belligerent by the neutral granting the permission stipulated in the
treaty. Mr. Baty is of the opinion that while the belligerent might have
"a right _in rem_ to the ship so far as the civil law was concerned," it
would have only a "quasi-contractual right _in personam_ against the
state in whose waters it lay, to allow it to be handed over." Obviously,
the performance of that duty, to hand over the vessel, "would have
become illegal when hostilities broke out."[28]
[Footnote 26: Int. Law in South Africa, p. 74.]
[Footnote 27: Ibid., p. 74.]
[Footnote 28: Ibid., p. 75.]
We have seen in previous pages that the consensus of opinion among
international law authorities of modern times is that a neutral should
in no case whatever allow the use of its territory for the purposes of a
belligerent expedition against a State with which it is upon friendly
terms. But granting the contention made by Mr. Baty that such a thing as
a real servitude may exist in international relations, let us examine
the stipulations in the treaty of June 11, 1891, by which it has been
alleged this right was secured to England.
If the British Government possessed a right _in rem_, then to all
intents and purposes it owned the road internationally, in war as well
as in peace, for all the uses to which a road is usually put, namely,
that of transporting all kinds of goods, warlike or peaceable. If
England only possessed a right _in personam_, this right was a valid one
in times of peace and for the purposes stipulated by the terms of the
treaty, but became void in time of war, and, being purely personal in
character, depended upon the promise of the State through which the road
passed. In the former case it would be a "right of way" in peace or in
war. In the latter case it would be merely a "license to pass," for the
granting of which Portugal would have to show valid reasons in view of
her neutral duties.
The parts of the treaty which may by any possibility apply to the case
are Articles 11, 12, and I4.[29]
[Footnote 29: British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. 83, pp. 27-41,
Treaty between Great Britain and Portugal, defining the Spheres of
Influence of the two Countries in Africa, signed at Lisbon, June 11,
1891, ratifications exchanged at London, July 3, 1891.]
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