In July 1916 the British and French govern ments, partly in consequence of Germany's methods of submarine warfare and partly in consequence of changed conditions, revoked the earlier proclamations by which they had put the declaration into force with certain modifi cations and promulgated a series of new rules which they would apply in respect to contra band, continuous voyage, etc. While the dec laration as such was thus thrown overboard, it may be said of it what has been said above of the Hague conventions, of 1907, namely, that many of its rules were not new but were merely declaratory of the existing customary laws and as such were binding upon the bellig erents as much so as if the declaration had been formally ratified.
At the present time, therefore, only a com paratively small part of the law of maritime warfare is to be found in the texts of inter national conventions; like the law of land war fare a century ago, it still consists largely of custom and of judicial precedent. Owing to the fact, however, that it has been the object of interpretation by prize courts for more than a century, it is now fairly well defined although as stated above there are still divergencies of opinion and of practice in regard to some im portant questions. While the larger part of the law of land warfare is now written and may be found in the texts of the great inter national conventions, there are still many ques tions, reprisals, for example, that are unregu lated, except by custom and usage. Both of the Hague conferences admitted that it had not been possible to agree upon regulations concerning all cases which might arise in prac tice and they took the precaution to declare expressly in the preamble to the convention • respecting the laws and customs of war on land that the high contracting parties did not intend that unforeseen cases should, in the ab sence of a written undertaking, be left to the arbitrary judgment of military-commanders and in °cases not included in the regulations adopted by them, the inhabitants and the belligerents remain under the protection and the rule of the principles of the law of nations as they result from the usages established among civilized peoples, from the laws of humanity and the dictates of the public conscience .°
The European War- has shown that some of the established rules of war law, those re lating to blockade and contraband, for example, are not in harmony with present day conditions and will need to be revised; others are obsolete and many new rules will be necessary in con sequence of the invention of new instrumental ities for carrying on ---ar. As to the exact changes that will be made in the new rules adopted it would, of course, be idle to speculate. See INTERNATIONAL LAW.
Bibliography.— 13entwich,
Declara tion of London' ; Holland, T. E.,