WILSON— LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS. 311 



other conventions, participation in the formulation of the law to the 

 divisions of which the state entity was composed. The legislation 

 thus rested upon a broader base than in many conventions of earlier 

 years. 



The progress in the application of the law for nations has been 

 exceedingly rapid. Cases which have defied the best efiforts of 

 diplomacy for generations have been settled by due process of law 

 in a few weeks. Cases which might have resulted in long and disas- 

 trous international contention have been resolved in the light of law. 

 Where recourse to legal settlement of disputes was in earlier times 

 the last resort, it has become the first, and not merely the parties to 

 the controversy may begin the action, but third parties may of right 

 suggest or even try to bring the parties to submit the case to the 

 decision of the court. 



A glance at conventions since 1899 will show how rapid is the 

 formulation of the law for nations. These international laws, in 

 addition to many private matters, cover the pacific settlement of in- 

 ternational disputes, limitation of the employment of force in the 

 collection of contract debts, laws for war on land, rights and duties 

 of neutral powers and persons in war on land, status of enemy mer- 

 chant ships at the outbreak of hostilities, the transformation of mer- 

 chant ships into warships, the laying of automatic contact submarine 

 mines, bombardment by naval forces in time of war, care of sick and 

 wounded in time of war, rights and duties of hospital ships, exercise 

 of right of capture in maritime war, prohibition of discharge of pro- 

 jectiles, from balloons, rights and duties, of neutral powers in time of 

 war, the establishment of an international prize court, and the law 

 for its guidance. 



The progress of the development of a law for nations within the 

 years since 1898, when the first proposition of the Czar was put 

 forward, has been greater than the progress in the two hundred and 

 fifty years preceding from the epochmaking treaty of Westphalia 

 in 1648 to the year 1898. 



At the end of the nineteenth century, conventional international 

 law covered but little of the possible field of international contention ; 

 now but a small part of the field is not covered by formal written 

 agreement, having after ratification the force of law not merely in 



