Contemporary International Law ♦ Article 65 Va. J. Int’l L. 437 (2025)

The Abuse of Neutrality

REBECCA INGBER

Neutrality law is a musty and obsolete body of international law that nevertheless rears its creaky head now and again in dangerous ways, most recently in the Russia- Ukraine conflict. The law of neutrality is a study in contradictions. It is obsolete yet remains on the books in treaties and military manuals. It purports to keep the peace and protect non-warring states yet today is invoked to expand conflict and protect aggressors. The legal benefits of neutrality have been entirely overtaken by other regimes. And yet neutrality law has not lost its luster despite losing its value. Instead of letting it fade into respectable oblivion, states, scholars, and practitioners continue to resurrect neutrality law as pretext for inaction and as justification for the unjustifiable. In the process, they muddy the legal waters, making escalation to war more rather than less likely. This Article seeks to put an end to this abuse of neutrality law, ideally by interring it for good.