Power, Law and the End of Privateering - by J Lemnitzer (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This book offers an exciting new take on the relationship between law and power. The 1856 Declaration of Paris marks the precise moment when international law became universal, and was an aggressive and successful British move to end privateering forever - then the United States' main weapon in case of war with Britain.

Review Quotes

"Jan Lemnitzer has awakened the 1856 Declaration of Paris from a very long sleep, and what an awakening it is! The Declaration of Paris, issued at the end of the Crimean War, is the grandfather of all modern international law agreements on the conduct of war, and it had a direct influence on both the US Navy's blockade of the Confederate States in the American Civil War and the attempted blockades of the Franco-Prussian War. It is a story of diplomats and captains, of lawyers and judges, and all with the threat of the most dire international conflicts hanging behind them. Here is a vast contribution to the American Civil War, European diplomatic history, and the laws of nations." - Professor Allen Carl Guelzo, Gettysburg College, USA, New York Times best-selling

author of Gettysburg: The Last Invasion

"Jan Martin Lemnitzer reveals the forgotten origins of the modern law of the sea and shows that the 19th century's efforts to regulate naval warfare explain a great deal about the course of the First World War." - Professor Nicholas Rodger, All Souls College, Oxford, UK

"Lemnitzer's diplomatic history of the circumstances and negotiations around the international agreement transforming belligerent law at sea, the Declaration of Paris of 1856, is both thoroughly well researched in all the appropriate archives and so well written that it is a pleasure to read. ... his book is a must for any student of belligerent law, international law in general, and nineteenth-century diplomatic history." - Nicholas Tracy, University of New Brunswick, Canada

"[T]horoughly well researched in all the appropriate archives and so well written that it is a pleasure to read. ... his book is a must for any student of belligerent law, international law in general, and nineteenth-century diplomatic history." - International Journal of Maritime History

"...path-breaking" - Professor Antony Howe, University of East Anglia, UK

"Jan Martin Lemnitzer has made a very important contribution to international history in this study of the 1856 Declaration of Paris and its immediate aftermath. ... With a highly structured approach and a persuasively presented argument, Lemnitzer has made excellent use of primary-source materials from Austria, Britain, France, Germany, and the United States. He has brought to light much new and detailed material, which he complements with broad-gauged and valuable insight." - Professor John B. Hattendorf, Naval War College, USA

'In this excellent monograph, Jan Martin Lemnitzer offers a study of the first global norms of maritime war, created in the mid-nineteenth century.' - Dirk Bonker, Duke University, American Historical Review

About the Author

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.