Discuss (b) Permanent neutrality of Switzerland/Austria

Neutrality is the legal status of a state that, in an international armed conflict between other states, remains impartial and non-participant — abstaining from assisting either belligerent — while retaining, by that very abstention, rights against the belligerents (its territory's inviolability; its trade's limited freedom) and owing duties to them (no military aid; even-handed abstention; prevention of its territory's use as a base). The classic codification: Hague Convention V (1907) (rights and duties of neutral powers in land war) and Hague XIII (naval war). Neutrality's charter-era status: not abolished by the UN Charter (a non-member of a Security Council enforcement action retains neutrality's protections in principle) — but complicated by collective security (the Council's enforcement actions cast "neutrality" as illegality — the Korea 1950 and Gulf 1991 debates). The neutral's rights/duties table (the compact exam answer): Neutral's dutiesNeutral's rightsAbstention: no troops, arms, or military support to either sideTerritorial inviolability: no hostilities, transit, or recruitment on neutral soilImpartiality: equal treatment of belligerents (non- discriminatory application of its rules)Neutral commerce's residual freedom (within contraband/blockade rules — Units 5–6)Prevention: stop belligerent use of neutral territory/waters/airspaceIts citizens' right to trade and even to serve (the individual's enlistment not the state's breach)