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determined either by the law of the foreign State in which the transacilon 

 occurred, so far as consonant with natural right, and with the policy of 

 the State exercising the jurisdiction, or by principles of natural right. 

 The principal application of this jurisdiction is to the case of contracts ; 

 which are said to be governed by the law of the place of contract {lex loci 

 contractus), and to cases of succession ; but it is also applied to cases of 

 trespass, and other torts. In all such cases the foreign law is applied, 

 not on the supposed ground of comity, but because justice demands that 

 it should be. 



With these few and simple considerations, which have in England and 

 in this country been greatly obscured by the prevailing theory, and which 

 are sufficient to give a clear and definite notion of the nature of Interna- 

 tional Law, or Right, we will now revert to our proper subject ; which is 

 the internal rights of the State, (c) 



I 54. Of the Distinction Between the Political and the Non-Political RigJits 

 of the State, and Herein First of the Social Rights of the State. 



The rights of the State may be divided into two general classes — namely, 

 those which pertain to the individuals composing the State, and which 

 differ from private rights only in being common to all, and those which 

 pertain to the State in its corporate capacity only. The latter may be 

 called the political, the former the non-political, or merely social rights of 

 the State. 



The former class includes the right to the maintenance of the public 

 peace and security, and also to the preservation of the public morality. 

 For the existence of these rights is essential to the existence and well- 

 being of every individual in the community, and they therefore exist in 

 the State because they exist in each of the individuals composing it. This 

 is sufficiently clear with reference to the maintenance of the public peace 

 and security, and with reference to the observance of justice ; for without 

 these, social life would be impossible ; and it is equally clear that a decent 

 observance of the received morality is, to a certain extent, demanded by 

 the rights of individuals, and that its open violation is, in certain cases, 

 inconsistent with those rights. For such violation of the principles of 

 morality generally observed by the community, would constitute what is 

 technically called a nuisance, and is as inconsistent with the comfortable 

 enjoyment of existence, and property and the free exercise of the faculties 

 in the pursuit of happiness, as a noxious smell, or poisonous exhalation, {d) 



In this kind of rights is also included a certain right to the lands of the 

 State, which is violated by its unjust appropriation by individuals ; for 

 without the right to a certain use of land, the existence of the individual 

 is impossible, and it would seem also that there is a right to a certain 

 equality of enjoyment in such lands. But the latter right is in its nature 

 indeterminate, and can be realized only by the affirmative action of the 

 State ; to which, as in the case of all indeterminate rights, this function 

 properly belongs. 



