WRIGHT— POWER TO MEET RESPONSIBILITIES. 257 



general international law. Thus the Hague Conventions on war 

 and neutrality by their own terms " do not apply except between 

 contracting powers and then only if all the belligerents are parties 

 to the Convention." ^^ American arbitration treaties have usually 

 excepted from the scope of obligatory arbitration cases " concerning 

 the interests of third parties " and Article 25 of the Jay treaty with 

 Great Britain of 1794 expressly provided that " nothing in this treaty 

 contained shall ... be construed or operate contrary to former and 

 existing public treaties with other sovereigns or states." If there is 

 a conflict, however, the later treaty is valid as municipal law until 

 superseded by another treaty or an act of Congress.^® 



But, as in the case of acts of Congress, courts attempt to con- 

 strue treaties in accord with the rights of third states. Thus they 

 gave a very narrow construction to the special privileges in Amer- 

 ican ports given to French privateers and war vessels by the 

 treaty of 1778, out of respect for the British right to demand from 

 a neutral state impartiality in regulating the use of its ports.^^ 



103. Observance of International Law by the President. 



The President might recognize a state or government or an ac- 

 quisition of territory in disregard of international law, or proclaim 

 neutrality in desregard of a treaty of alliance or wrongfully inter- 

 vene in a foreign state, and his act would be followed by the 

 courts.^^ There is no guarantee that the President will exercise his 

 discretionary powers in accord with international law and treaty, 

 except his own sense of international responsibility and a fear of a 

 possible impeachment.^'* Congress has passed laws defining and 

 limiting the purposes for which the army, navy and militia may be 



25 See also League of Nations Covenant, Art. 20. 



26Bolcher v. Darrell, Fed. Cas. 1607, 1795; The Phoebe Ann, 3 Dall. 

 319. See also Wright, Conflicts between International Law and Treaties, 

 Am. Jl. Int. Law, 11: 566 et seq. (July, 1917). 



z'^ The Phoebe Ann, supra. Wright, op. cit., pp. 574-S ; Moore, Digest, 

 5: 591-598. 



^^ Infra, sec. 107. 



29 Impeachment lies for moral and political offenses as well as crimes in 

 the legal sense. Willoughby, op. cit., p. 1124. See also Corwin, John Mar- 

 shall and the Constitution, p. 78. 



