42G WRIGHT— UNDERSTANDINGS CONCERNING 



The court dismissed the suit on finding that there had been no 

 definite facts found as to the place of seizure, but its opinion 

 indicates the feeling that it ought not to prejudice the results of the 

 controversy pending before the Department of State. The court, 

 however, seemed to regard this feeling as an understanding rather 

 than a legal requirement, for it said : ^^ 



" We are not to be understood, however, as underrating the weight of 

 the argument that in a case involving private rights the court may be obliged, 

 if those rights are dependent upon the construction of acts of Congress or 

 of a treaty, and the case turns upon a question, public in its nature, which 

 has not been determined by the political departments in the form of a law 

 specifically setthng it, or authorizing the Executive to do so, to render judg- 

 ment, since we have no more right to decline the jurisdiction which is given 

 than to usurp that which is not given." 



This latter power seems to have been exercised in the case of Percy 

 V. Stranahan, where the Supreme Court decided upon the status of 

 Pine Island ofif Cuba, although the matter was and had been for 

 seven years pending in the State Department. Where a decision 

 has actually been given by the political departments on such ques- 

 tions as the limits of jurisdiction, the status of governments and 

 states, etc., the courts follow such decisions implicitly.^* 



248. Concurrent Powers of Treaty Pozvcr and Congress. 



The most notable overlapping of power, however, occurs in the 

 case of Congress and the treaty-making power. Treaties may 

 require the payment of money, establish customs duties, regulate 

 foreign commerce, fix a standard of weights and measures, pro- 

 vide for international postal service and international copyright, 

 provide courts for the trial of seamen on foreign vessels sojourn- 

 ing in the United States, 'define and provide for punishing ofifenses 

 against the law of nations, require the meeting of guarantees by 

 armed force or declaration of war, regulate declarations of war or 

 forbid them in certain circumstances, prohibit the granting of letters 

 of marque and reprisal, make rules concerning captures on land 



13 7n re Cooper, 143 U. S. 472; Moore, Digest, i: 744; Willoughby, op. 

 cit., p. lOIO. 



1* Percy v. Stranahan, 205 U. S. 257 (1907) ; Jones v. U. S., 137 U. S. 

 202; supra, sec. 107. 



