It has now come to cover, and it is the only term which does cover generically, an indeterminate list of unfriendly acts, such as embargo, pacific blockade, seizure of custom-houses, and even occupation of territory, to which resort is had in order to obtain redress from an offending State without going to war with it.
Holland defines a broad range of actions that can be taken against a state without declaring war.
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More from Thomas Erskine Holland
This is what makes it possible to proclaim an international law of war, approved by the legal conscience of all civilised peoples; and when a principle is thus generally accepted, it exerts an authority over minds and manners which curbs…
The greatest kindness in war is to bring it to a speedy conclusion.
Every law presupposes an authority to superintend and direct its execution, and international conventions are supported by no such authority.
But I go further, and think the softening of manners can alone bring about this result, which cannot be attained by a codification of the law of war.
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