428 WRIGHT— UNDERSTANDINGS CONCERNING 



Treaties have very seldom been found to conflict with earlier 

 acts of Congress. Perhaps the only case is a treaty with France of 

 i8oi, which required the return of uncondemned prizes and thereby 

 divested certain captors of their rights to prize money as provided 

 by an earlier act of Congress.^® This is accounted for by two 

 reasons. Many treaties which would affect established legislative 

 policies in such matters as tariffs, commercial regulation, etc., are 

 by their own terms made to depend for effectiveness upon con- 

 gressional acceptance. Most other treaties conflicting with legis- 

 lative policy are held not to be self-executing and consequently can- 

 not be carried into effect until Congress acts. This is true of 

 treaties requiring an appropriation, a declaration of war, criminal 

 punishment, etc. The obligation of Congress to pass such legis- 

 lation will be considered later. However, whichever reason applies, 

 the treaty power does not in practice modify existing acts of 

 Congress without the consent of Congress. 



B. Cooperation of Independent Organs. 



249. Constitutional Understanding Respecting the Cooperation of 

 Independent Organs. 

 The difficulty which arises from the frequent need of coopera- 

 tion between independent and coordinate departments in carrying 

 out the powers of the national government is met by a constitu- 

 tional understanding which may be stated in the following words : 

 Where action contemplated by any independent department re- 

 quires the cooperation of another independent department for its 

 carrying out, the advice of that department ought to be sought 

 before the action is taken, but where such action has already been 

 taken the department whose cooperation is required ought to per- 

 form the necessary acts even though its advice had not been asked 

 or if asked had not been followed. 



" Whenever," reported the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, " af- 

 firmative action of either the executive or the legislative branch of the gov- 



18 U. S. V. The Peggy, i Cranch 103. See also La Ninfa, 75 Fed. 513, 

 applying the avi^ard of the Behring Sea Arbitration based on treaty and op- 

 posed to the earlier interpretation of an act of Congress ; and also application 

 of most-favored-nation clause in Swiss treaty of 1850 in 1898, supra, sec. 154. 



