WRIGHT— POWER TO MEET RESPONSIBILITIES. 295 



this irrespective of remedies, such as action against counties or munic- 

 ipahties, which the state law may give.^ " The ItaHan Govern- 

 ment," wrote Baron Fava, ItaHan Ambassador, in reference to the 

 lynching of three Italians in Erwin, Mississippi, in 1901, and in re- 

 sponse to the American suggestion that Mississippi was responsible, 

 " will not cease to denounce the systematic impunity enjoyed by 

 crime, and to hold the federal government responsible therefor." ^ 



A. The Nature of National Obligations. 



137. Obligations Founded on International Agreement. 



National obligations may arise either (i) from express agree- 

 ment or (2) from the operation of general international law. 



Agreement of the nation may be evidenced by contracts with 

 individuals by executive or military agreements, or by conventions 

 or treaties. Any of these instruments if made by competent author- 

 ity will bind the nation. Contracts or executive agreements usually 

 require the performance of definite acts such as the payment of 

 money, the movement of troops, the conclusion of a treaty, but con- 

 ventions and treaties often state general principles of law for the 

 guidance of individuals as well as specific obligations to be performed 

 by public authorities. During the nineteenth century treaties have 

 tended to be regulative, rather than political in character. Their 

 predominant character has changed from that of political contracts 

 to codes of law or administrative regulations providing for inter- 

 national administration in a smaller or wider circle.' 



A similar distinction has been recognized by American courts, 

 in classifying certain treaty provisions as " self-executing." Prac- 

 tically this distinction depends upon whether or not the courts and 



existed. The only case between a state and an undoubted foreign nation is 

 that of Cuba v. N. Car. (242 U. S. 665, 1917), but no opinion was given 

 because of dismissal on motion of the plaintiff. See Scott, Judicial Settle- 

 ment of Controversies between States of the American Union, 1919, pp. 

 105-106. 



5 Supra, sec. 89, pars. 2, sec. 120. 



^ Moore, Digest, 6 : 849. 



^ Wright, Am. Jl. Int. Law, 13 : 243, 245. 



