493 J IN INTERNATIONAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 1 95 



against the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles.^^ 

 Whether a United States Senate will later ratify the Treaty 

 or not, the two earlier refusals will play an important part 

 in future discussions and opinions concerning the interna- 

 tional legal validity of the principles embodied in the Treaty. 

 What Oppenheim stated for the time prior to the World 

 War still remains true : " It is doubtful whether the law of 

 nations will ever make it a condition of every cession that 

 it must be ratified by a plebiscite."^" 



'8 Nov. 19, 1919 ; Mar. 19, 1920. 

 *° See above, p. 172, note 4. 



