Certainly the
action of the belligerents in 1854 met with general approval and in the
result was written into international law at the Congress of Paris in
1856, where, at the conclusion of the war, the belligerents and some
leading neutrals were gathered.
The Declaration of Paris on maritime warfare covered four points:
"1. Privateering is, and remains, abolished.
"2. The neutral flag covers enemy's goods, with the exception
of contraband of war.
"3. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war,
are not liable to capture under enemy's flag.
"4. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective;
that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to
prevent access to the coast of the enemy[240]."
This agreement was adopted by Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia,
Russia, Sardinia and Turkey, and it was further agreed that a general
invitation to accede should be extended to all nations, but with the
proviso "that the powers which shall have signed it, or which shall
accede thereto, shall not in future enter into any arrangement,
concerning the application of the law of neutrals in time of war, which
does not rest altogether upon the four principles embodied in the said
declaration[241]." In other words it must be accepted in whole, and not
in part, and the powers acceding pledging themselves not to enter into
any subsequent treaties or engagements on maritime law which did not
stipulate observance of all four points.
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