UN Law v. Geneva Law, 1946–1949

Abstract

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, America actively promoted the development of the law of neutrality, but it also did much to further the development of the humanitarian law ofwar. Americans abhorred impressment and the cruel treatment of sailors and soldiers at the hands of the British.¹ The American campaign against privateering was also in part motivated by humanitarian concerns. Finally, the Civil War taught Americans a great deal about the problems of the wounded in battle, prisoners of war and civilian refugees. The universalist liberal values so intimately related to neutrality and free trade also extended to humanitarian concerns in war.