ABSTRACT
There are several ways in which states can declare their neutrality during wartime. In 1914, the Dutch government chose the most formal, it issued a declaration of neutrality for every pronouncement of war, to which were attached binding rules and conditions. Each declaration outlined the Netherlands’ neutrality obligations. 2 But the regulations were not all-encompassing. They focussed almost exclusively on external violations that could threaten national security and defence. Other, less pressing, neutrality concerns, such as censorship and contraband, received scant mention in the regulations. Of course, internal and economic neutrality violations were harder to safeguard and more ambiguous by definition; they would not necessarily force an international incident that could bring the nation to the brink of war, whereas an external military breach almost certainly would.
