474 JURISPRUDENCE 



brought several great nations into a common undertaking, but this 

 alliance, while of political importance, added nothing to the develop- 

 ment of the law. 



In the last half of the century, however, there has been an enor- 

 mous development of combinations, both to affect and to enforce 

 law; and resulting therefrom a development of the substance of 

 the law itself. The associations of civilized nations to suppress 

 the slave trade both made and enforced a new law. The concert on 

 the Eastern Question, the Congress of Paris, the joint action of the 

 powers in case of Greece and Crete, and in the settlement of the 

 questions raised by the Russo-Turkish and Japanese wars, the 

 Geneva and Hague conventions, are all proofs of the increasing 

 readiness of the great powers to make, declare, and enforce doctrines 

 of law, and they have not hesitated, in case of need, to make their 

 action binding upon weaker states, disregarding, for the good of the 

 world, the technical theory of the equality of all states. While all 

 independent states are still free, they are not now regarded as free 

 to become a nuisance to the world. Perhaps the most striking 

 change in the substance of international law has been the extraor- 

 dinary development of the law of neutrality. A hundred years 

 ago the rights and the obligations of neutrals were ill defined and 

 little enforced. To-day they form a principal theme of discussion in 

 every war; and the neutral nations, for the good of the whole world, 

 force the belligerents to abate somewhat from their freedom of 

 action. 



It may be worth while, in order to see how far this constitutional 

 change has progressed, to look for a moment at the present condition 

 of the constitutional law of nations. We have, in the first place, 

 a body of states known as the " Great Powers," which have taken 

 to themselves the regulation of the conduct of all nations. In this 

 hemisphere the United States is sponsor for all the smaller independ- 

 ent nations. In Europe the Great Powers exercise control over 

 the whole of Europe and Africa, and a large part of Asia, while in 

 the extreme Orient, Japan seems likely to occupy a similar position 

 to our own in the Western hemisphere. The constitutional position 

 of this confederation of powers is not unlike that of the states of the 

 American Confederation of 1780, and in certain ways it is even 

 further developed. Its legislation is not in the hands of a single 

 permanent congress, but it is accomplished by mutual consultation. 

 For action, as Lord Salisbury once informed the world, " unanimous 

 consent is required," as was the case in our confederation. Execu- 

 tive power has been exercised several times, either by the joint show 

 of force by two or more powers, or by deputing one power to accom- 

 plish the desired result. The judiciary, as a result of The Hague 

 Convention, is much further developed than was that of the Confed- 



