FINAL ACT OF SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. 115 



Whereas, the rights and duties of nations are, by virtue of membership in 

 the society thereof, to be exercised and performed in accordance with 

 the exigincies of their mutual interdependence expressed in the pre- 

 amble of the Convention for the pacific settlement of international dis- 

 putes of the First and Second Hague Peace Conferences, recognizing the 

 solidarity which unites the members^of the society of civilized nations; 

 Therefore, The American Institute of International Law, at its first ses- 

 sion, held in the City of Washington, in the United States of America, 

 on the sixth day of January, 1916, adopts the following six articles, together 

 with the commentary thereon, to be known as its Declaration of the Rights 

 and Duties of Nations. 



I. Every nation has the right to exist and to protect and to conserve its 



existence; but this right neither implies the right nor justifies 

 the act of the state to protect itself or to conserve its existence 

 by the commission of unlawful acts against innocent and 

 unoffending states. 



II. Every nation has the right to independence in the sense that it has a right 



to the pursuit of happiness and is free to develop itself without 

 interference or control from other states, provided that in so doing 

 it does not interfere with or violate the rights of other states. 



III. Every nation is in law and before law the equal of every other nation 



belonging to the society of nations, and all nations have the right 

 to claim and, according to the Declaration of Independence of the 

 United States, "to assume, among the powers of the earth, the 

 separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of 

 nature's God entitle them" 



IV. Every nation has the right to territory within defined boundaries, and 



to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over its territory, and all persons 

 whether native or foreign found therein. 



V. Every nation entitled to a right by the law of nations is entitled to 



have that right respected and protected by all other nations, for 

 right and duty are correlative, and the right of one is the duty of 

 all to observe. 



VI. International law is at one and the same time both national and inter- 



national; national in the sense that it is the law of the land and 

 applicable as such to the decision of all questions involving its 

 principles; international in the sense that it is the law of the 

 society of nations and applicable as such to all questions between 

 and among the members of the society of nations involving its 

 principles. 



