WILSON— LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS. 305 



III 

 LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS. 



By GEORGE GRAFTON WILSON, A.M., Ph.D., LL.D. 



It is peculiarly fitting that the legislative aspects of international 

 law should be presented before a philosophical society. In true in- 

 ternational law there must be some classes of rights which may from 

 their nature be regarded as resting upon philosophical bases. Cer- 

 tain laws are recognized as binding among states because they appeal 

 to mankind as having a sound foundation in human reason. Inter- 

 national law so far as resting on such ideas as sovereignty and equal- 

 ity of states must find support in philosophical concepts. Similarly, 

 in international legislation a view that may be called philosophical 

 must be taken. 



The early writers often sought a philosophical basis in the law 

 of nature which might be discovered in the dictates of right reason- 

 ing, dictates not to be arbitrarily set aside even by deity which had 

 created the reasoning faculty. Thinkers have realized that interna- 

 tional law must make an appeal to the mind of mankind rather than 

 to that of men of a single type. From the very nature of the law as 

 international it must receive the approval of representatives of states 

 differing widely in fundamental ideals and national policies. 



The nature of the state, which is the person in international law, 

 determines the scope of the law and the range of international legis- 

 lation. The state being a political entity responds and must re- 

 spond to stimuli which are political. There is then involved in in- 

 ternational legislation the question as to what is for the public well- 

 being in contradiction at times with what may be for the well-being 

 of a given individual or group of individuals. The degree to 

 which different states will consider the well-being of individuals 

 within the state will again be a political question determined by 

 the degree of participation which the individual may have in state 

 affairs. Accordingly when international law is formulated with 

 view to application to a few homogeneous states, its range may be 



