WRIGHT— POWER TO AIEET RESPONSIBILITIES. 265 



a jurisdiction beyond the three-mile limit in Behring Sea/^ but 

 when the question of definition came before Congress a bill de- 

 finitely approving the extended jurisdiction was not passed, the act 

 of 1889 merely asserting that the earlier statute should " include and 

 apply to all the dominions of the United States in the waters of 

 Behring Sea," thus leaving open the question of the extent of these 

 waters/^ The district court in Alaska, however, affirmed by the 

 Supreme Court, held that the political departments had decided for 

 the wider jurisdiction and that Canadian vessels captured while seal 

 fishing sixty miles from shore were liable.'" It would seem that 

 under the circumstances, the courts might well have held the 

 statutes to imply an invitation for judicial decision based on inter- 

 national law. After the arbitration of 1893 ^'^^^ declared unequivo- 

 cally for the three-mile limit, the Circuit Court of Appeals held that 

 the act of 1889 must be interpreted accordingly."^ 



108. This Principle not Applicable to Ca:es Covered by Written 

 Law. 



Apart from political questions courts are bound by plain terms 

 of the Constitution, by treaties, by acts of Congress, and by executive 

 orders under authority thereof, in spite of principles of interna- 

 tional law and earlier treaties. They, however, attempt to inter- 

 pret such documents in accord with international law, frequently 

 with success,'^ and they refuse to apply state constitutions and 

 statutes in conflict with treaty. '" 



In general the courts do apply international law and treaty, and 



because of the opportunity for a careful consideration of the sources 



and reason of that law which their deliberate methods afford, they 



assure the application of international law in cases not covered by 



^* Moore, Int. Arb., p. 769. 



75 Act March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 1099; Moore, Int. Arb., p. 765. 

 75 U. S. V. La Ninfa, 49 Fed. 575, 1891 ; In re Cooper, 143 U. S. 472, 

 502-505. 



77 U. S. V. La Ninfa, 75 Fed. 513. As a result of the arbitration the 

 United States paid Great Britain $473,151.26 as indemnity for the seizures. 

 See Moore, Digest, i : 890-929, and Int. Arb., pp. 765-960. 



78 Murray v. The Charming Betsey, 2 Cranch 64, and see Wright, Con- 

 flicts of International Law with National Laws and Ordinances, Am. Jl. 

 Int. Law, II: i et seq. (Jan., 1917). 



78 Ware v. Hylton, 3 Dall. 199, and supra, note 3. 



