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Strategies of Legal Change: Great Britain, International Law, and the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Strategies of Legal Change: Great Britain, International Law, and the Abolition of the... Holger Lutz Kern 233 Journal of the History of International Law 6 : 233–258, 2004. ©2004 Koninklijke Brill NV. Printed in the Netherlands. Strategies of Legal Change: Great Britain, International Law, and the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade* Holger Lutz Kern From the beginning of the sixteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade was legally carried on by traders from most Western European nations. On 25 March 1807, however, the British Parliament declared it illegal for British subjects to trade in slaves, effective 1 May 1807. 1 Not only did Great Britain endeavor to prevent its own citizens from further participation in the slave trade, it was also unwilling to see it continued by traders from other countries. Abolition “should not be thwarted nor frustrated by the pertinacency of other Powers, in allowing their sub- jects to continue this disgraceful Traffick,” wrote George Canning, the British Foreign Secretary, in 1807. 2 But to the indignation of successive British cabinets, international law restricted what actions the Royal Navy – Britainʼs principal instrument for the suppression of the traffic – could take against a trade that was now almost exclusively carried out under foreign http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international Brill

Strategies of Legal Change: Great Britain, International Law, and the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2004 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1388-199X
eISSN
1571-8050
DOI
10.1163/1571805042782073
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Holger Lutz Kern 233 Journal of the History of International Law 6 : 233–258, 2004. ©2004 Koninklijke Brill NV. Printed in the Netherlands. Strategies of Legal Change: Great Britain, International Law, and the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade* Holger Lutz Kern From the beginning of the sixteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade was legally carried on by traders from most Western European nations. On 25 March 1807, however, the British Parliament declared it illegal for British subjects to trade in slaves, effective 1 May 1807. 1 Not only did Great Britain endeavor to prevent its own citizens from further participation in the slave trade, it was also unwilling to see it continued by traders from other countries. Abolition “should not be thwarted nor frustrated by the pertinacency of other Powers, in allowing their sub- jects to continue this disgraceful Traffick,” wrote George Canning, the British Foreign Secretary, in 1807. 2 But to the indignation of successive British cabinets, international law restricted what actions the Royal Navy – Britainʼs principal instrument for the suppression of the traffic – could take against a trade that was now almost exclusively carried out under foreign

Journal

Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2004

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