ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 143 



edly true, if it has a. situs; but T suppose thatmy learued friends would 

 not agree with me that seals have a situs in the territory of the United 

 States at all times. If they liave no admitted situs in the United 

 States, the question as to whether they have a situs there cannot be 

 determined by any ai)i)eal to municipal law alone, but must be deter- 

 mined by an appeal to international law. 



In all this I do not mean that municipal law in relation to property 

 is of no im])ortance in this discussion. On the contrary, it is of the 

 very highest importance that we should seek it, and know just what it 

 is; and it is of consequence in this discussion because it is evidence of 

 what the law of nature is. Property never was ci eated by municipal 

 law at all; that is to say, by positive legislative enactment. Societies 

 have not come together and created pro])erty. Proi)erty is a creation 

 anterior to human society. Human society was created in order to 

 defend it and support it. It is one of its main objects. It rests upon 

 the law of nature; and the whole juris])rudence respecting property as 

 it stands in the municipal law of the civilized states of the world is a 

 body of unwritten law for the most part. It is derived from the law of 

 nature. Even in those nations where the ci^il law is crystallized into 

 the form of codes, there are no laws, no enactments, which declare 

 what shall and what shall not be the subjects of property. At least, 

 I apprehend so. Property is assumed as already existing. It stands 

 upon the law of nature. The questions, however, what shall be prop- 

 erty and w^iat shall not be property, and what shall be the rules 

 respecting the i)rotection which is given to it — all these questions have 

 been discussed for a thousand years and more, in municipal law, by 

 learned tribunals, in many different forms; and, consequently, the 

 whole law of nature, so far as it affects the subject of j^roperty, will 

 be found to be developed in a high degree in munici])al law. There- 

 fore, and to that extent, I concur with my learned friend, that it is 

 highly important to investigate the municipal law upon the subject of 

 property; and wherever it is found universally concurring upon a given 

 point, it may be taken as the absolute voice of the law of nature, and 

 therefore of international law. 



[The Tribunal thereupon adjourned until Tuesday, April 19, 1803, at 

 11.30 o'clock a. m.] 



