422 WRIGHT— UNDERSTANDINGS CONCERNING 



ternational responsibilities, but, according to the doctrine of separa- 

 tion of powers, each of the three departments of government exer- 

 cises an independent discretion, legally uncontrolled by any other au- 

 thority. Three difficulties may arise from this situation : 



(A) The powers of two departments may overlap, giving rise 

 to contrary action on the same occasion. 



" The existence," said a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report of 

 1898, " of the same power for the same purposes in both the legislative and 

 executive branches of the Government might lead to most unfortunate result's. 

 For instance, if the legislative and executive branches both possessed the power 

 of recognizing the independence of a foreign nation, and one branch should 

 declare it independent, while the other denied its independence, then, since 

 they are coordinate, how could the problem be solved by the judicial branch? " 1 



(B) An independent department may lack sufficient power to 

 achieve a desired end without the cooperation of another independ- 

 ent department. 



" A treaty," said the Circuit Court, " is the supreme law of the land in 

 ■respect of such matters only as the treaty-making power, without the aid of 

 Congress, can carry into effect. Where a treaty stipulates for the payment 

 •of money for which an appropriation is required, it is not operative in the 

 ■^ense of the Constitution." 2 



(C) Organs properly adapted to meeting certain international 

 responsibilities may not exist. The general principle which ought 

 to govern the discretion of the departments in the presence of such 

 difficulties has been thus expressed by the Supreme Court of North 

 Carolina : ^ 



" While the executive, legislative, and supreme judicial powers of the 

 government ought to be forever separate and distinct, it is also true that the 

 science of government is a practical one ; therefore, v/hile each should firmly 

 maintain the essential powers belonging to it, it cannot be forgotten that the 

 three coordinate parts constitute one brotherhood, whose common trust re- 

 quires a mutual toleration of what seems to be a ' common because of 

 vicinage' bordering on the domains of each." 



1 Sen. Doc. 56, S4th Cong., 2d sess., p. 4 ; Corwin, op. cit., p. 36, supra, 

 sec. 191. 



2 Turner v. Am. Baptist Missionary Union, 5 McLean 347 ; Wharton, 

 Digest, 2 : 73; Moore, Digest, 5 : 222. 



s Brown v. Turner, 70 N. C. 93, 102. 



