PART 11. 



The Position of the Foreign Relations Power 

 Under International Law. 

 CHAPTER II. 



The Representative Organ of Government. 



9. The Nature of International Law. 



International law has developed in a society based upon the 

 assumption of the complete independence of territorial states.^ 

 This independence is commonly said to imply that the state has 

 power to form a constitution and organize a government as it 

 sees fit; to formulate law and administer justice within its ter- 

 ritory according to its own notions; to formulate and pursue 

 foreign policies and to be the sole judge of its international respon- 

 sibilities.^ However, the contemporary and contiguous existence 

 of many states, each with an equal independence, practically re- 

 quires limitations in the exercise of these powers and the practice 

 and usage defining these limitations constitute international law. 

 The formulation, however, of a body of practice as law implies 

 responsibility for its observance. Thus we may define interna- 

 tional law as the body of rules and principles of conduct, observed 

 within the society of independent states, for the violation of which 

 states are habitually held responsible, by diplomatic protest, inter- 

 vention, reprisals, war or other means.' 



1 " In the fifteenth century international life was fast resolving itself into 

 a struggle for existence in its barest form. In such condition of things no 

 law could be established which was unable to recognize absolute independence 

 as a fact prior to itself." W. E. Hall, Inf. Law, 7th ed. (Higgins), 1917, p. 

 18. 



2 Wilson, Handbook of Int. Law, 1910, p. 56; Hershe}', The Essentials 

 of Int. Pub. Law, 1912, p. 147; Bonfils, Manuel" de droit international public, 

 6th ed. (Fauchille), 1912, sec. 58, p. 119; Borchard, The Diplomatic Pro- 

 tection of Citizens Abroad, 1915, p. 177; Wright, Am. Pol. Sci. Rez'., 13: 563; 

 Columbia Law Rev., 20: 146. 



3 For justification of this definition and comparison with other defini- 

 tions see Wright, Enforcement of Int. Law through Municipal Law in U. S. 

 U. of 111., Studies in the Social Sciences, 5 : 12-13 and Borchard, op. dr., y. 

 177 et seq. 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC , VOL. LX., I, MARCH 6, 1922. 



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