ABSTRACT
The germ of the conception of the several and collective responsibility of states for forming a judgment upon the merits of a particular dispute and acting accordingly is really to be found in the treatise of Grotius himself. After the time of Grotius, however, jurists and statesmen elaborated the doctrines of neutrality in such a way and to such an extent as to undermine, and indeed very largely to destroy, the authority of the international system. The obligations of neutrality, as set forth by the writers on the subject, are, it is to be observed, the obligations of a state which wishes to keep out of a war towards the actual belligerents. The narrow and self-regarding view of neutrality was prominently enunciated by Bynkershoek in 1737. Peace can be established upon firm foundations only in accordance with principles which would exclude the right of any state to maintain an attitude of neutrality in the event of war.
