COMMENTARIES UPON INTERNATIONAL LAW. PART THE FIFTH. CHAPTER I. RIGHTS INCIDENT TO THE EQUALITY OF STATES. I. IT has been said (a) that the Rights incident to EQUALITY seem to flow, more especially, from the second of the two propositions upon which the science of International Law is mainly built; namely, the proposition that each State is a member of an Universal Community; and that the principal Rights incident to this doctrine of the EQUALITY of States, are the following: 1. The Right of a State to afford protection to her subjects wheresoever commorant (b): and under this category must be considered the important question of Debts due by the Government of one State to the Subjects of another. (a) l'ide ante, vol. i. part i. c. 2. p. 9; part iii. c. 2. p. 184. (b) Grotius, 1. iii. c. ii. Quomodo jure gentium bona subditorum pro debito imperantium obligentur: ubi de repressaliis. II. The Right of a State to the Recognition of her Government by the Government of other States. III. The Right of each State to external Marks of Honour and Respect from other States. IV. The Right of each State to enter into International Covenants and Treaties with other States. It is proposed to consider these subjects in the following Chapters. But with regard to all of them it should be borne in mind that to use well-considered judicial language -the Transactions of Independent Sovereign States between each other are governed by other laws than those which Municipal Courts administer. Such Courts have neither the means of decreeing what is right, nor the power of enforcing any decision which they may make (c). (c) Secretary of State for India v. Kamachee Boye Sahaba. 13 Moore, Privy Council Rep., pp. 75, 84-86. CHAPTER II. RIGHT OF PROTECTING CITIZENS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. II. THE limitation which this Right of Protection prescribes to the foregoing Right of Jurisdiction, may be in a great measure inferred from what has been stated with respect to the extent of the latter Right. 66 "Prima autem maximèque necessaria cura pro subditis, "sive qui familiari, sive qui civili subsunt imperio; sunt enim quasi pars rectoris;" is the language of Grotius (a); and Vattel (b), following in the same track, observes:"Quiconque maltraite un citoyen, offense indirectement (c) "l'État qui doit protéger ce citoyen "(d). It has been said that every individual who enters a foreign territory, binds himself, by a tacit contract, to obey the laws enacted in it for the maintenance of the good order and tranquillity of the realm. The converse of the proposition is equally true. Foreigners, whom a State has once admitted unconditionally into its territories, are entitled not only to freedom from injury (e), but to the execution of justice (ƒ) in respect (a) Grotius, 1. ii. c. xxv. De causis belli pro aliis suscipiendi. (b) Heffters, ss. 6, 59, 60. Vattel, 1. ii. vi. De la part que la nation peut avoir aux actions de ses citoyens. (c) Vide ante, vol. i. p. 355. (d) Grotius, ubi supra. Vattel, ubi supra. (e) Correspondence respecting the Arrest of Mr. Harwood (the Vienna Correspondent of "The Morning Chronicle") by the Austrian Authorities at Vienna, 1852-3. Laid before Parliament, 1853. (f) Debates in both Houses of Parliament on the Affairs of Greece and the claims of Don Pacifico.-Hansard's Parl. Deb. June, 1850. |