132 POWER UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW. 



Acts or resolutions of Congress become effective upon signature 

 by the President, or if passed over his veto, upon signature by the 

 Clerk of the last House of Congress to act.^- Amendments to 

 the Federal Constitution become effective upon proclamation by 

 the Secretary of State. ^^ Treaties become effective as domestic 

 law upon proclamation by the President, but as between nations 

 they are effective from signature if ratifications are subsequently 

 exchanged.^* Only in the case of treaties is there any official proc- 

 lamation by the President, yet all of these instruments, declared 

 supreme law by article VI of the Constitution, are subject to inter- 

 national cognizance immediately upon becoming effective. ^^ For- 

 eign nations, in fact, always taken cognizance of acts of Congress 

 deemed to be in violation of their rights under international law 

 or treaty as did China of the exclusion acts^" and Great Britain 



12 Rev. Stat., sec. 204, amended Dec. 28, 1874, 18 Stat., 294, sec. 2, 

 Comp. Stat., sec. 302, and supra, note 9. The Secretary of State is required 

 to furnish copies of valid resolutions and acts of Congress and treaties to 

 the Congressional Printer " as soon as possible " after they have become 

 "law." Rev. Stat., sec. 308. 



13 Rev. Stat'., sec. 205, Comp. Stat., sec. 303. 



1* Rev. Stat., sec. 210, Comp. Stat., sec. 308. Treaties must be published 

 in one newspaper in the District of Columbia to be designated by the 

 Secretary of State, Act July 31, 1876, 19 Stat., 105, Comp. Stat., sec. 7184. 

 " It is undoubtedly true as a principle of international law, that, as re- 

 spects the rights of either government under it, a treaty is considered as 

 concluded and binding from the date of its signature. In this regard the ex- 

 change of ratifications has a retroactive effect, confirming the treaty from 

 its date. (Wheat, Int. Law, by Dana, 336.) But a different rule prevails 

 where the treaty operates on individual rights. ... In so far as it affect's 

 them it is not considered as concluded until there is an exchange of ratifica- 

 tions. ... In this country a treaty is something more than a contract, for 

 the federal constitution declares it to be the law of the land. If so, before 

 it can become a law, the Senate, in whom rests the authority to ratify it, 

 must agree to it. But the Senate are not required to adopt or reject it as a 

 whole, but may modify or amend it, as was done with the Treaty under 

 consideration. As the individual citizen, on whose rights of property it op- 

 erates, has no means of knowing anything of it while before the Senate, 

 it would be wrong in principle to hold him bound by it. as the law of the 

 land, until it was ratified and proclaimed." Haver v. Yaker, 9 Wall., 32. 



15 Infra, sec. 22. 



iG Chinese Protests against Act of Oct. i, 1888, see U. S. For. Rel., 1889, 

 1 15-150, Ibid., 1890, 177, 206, 210-219, 228-230; against Act of May 5, 1892, 

 see Ibid., 1892, 106, 118, 119, 123, 126, 134-138, 145, 147-155, 158," cited Moore, 

 Digest, 4 : 198, 202. 



