48l] IN INTERNATIONAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 183 



shaping of principles and rules for decisions in matters 

 affecting international relations, whether we hold that in- 

 ternational law is law in the same sense that national law 

 is^^ and that it constitutes an integral part of the municipal 

 law of, for instance. Great Britain, the United States, and 

 the new German Republic,^- or whether we follow those 

 who believe that, where and when English, American, and 

 German courts adopt and apply principles of international 

 law, they are so applied and enforced not as international 

 but as municipal law.^^ For, where, in the application of the 

 principles of international law by municipal courts, these 

 principles conflict to the extent that they cannot be recon- 

 ciled with the accepted norms of common or national law, 

 the courts decide according to the law of the land.^* In 

 such cases it is the business of the State or the Crown to 

 allay the differences which such a decision may cause in the 

 international relations with other states. It is in the deci- 

 sions of courts in such cases of conflict between common or 

 expressed municipal law and international practice with the 

 possible consequence of international negotiations that we 

 may find a field for a slow but sure encroachment of prin- 

 ciples of constitutional and municipal law upon the realm 

 of rules governing the conduct of nations. 



However, from the point of view of constitutional law 

 there is an obstacle to the universal acceptance of the plebi- 

 scite as a means of expression of a popular desire for self- 

 determination. The constitutional legislation of revolu- 

 tionary France recognized the plebiscite in the case of all 

 revolutionary movements of whatever country or fragment 

 of a country as a legitimate means of secession from their 



'1 J. B. Scott, The Legal Nature of International Law, in The 

 American Journal of International Law, October, 1907, pp. 831-866. 



32 Article 4 of the Constitution of the German Republic reads: 

 "The universally recognized principles of the laws of nations arc 

 accepted as binding elements of the laws of the German Nation." 



'^ Willoughby, The Legal Nature of International l^iw, in The 

 American Jf>urnal of International Law, April. I'loS, pp. 357-365- 



3< C. M. Picciotto, The Relation of International Law to the Law 

 of England and of the United States of America, New York, 1915, 

 especially p. 26. 



