PART THIRD. INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS OF STATES IN THEIR PACIFIC RELATIONS. CHAP. I. RIGHTS OF LEGATION. diplomatic THERE is no circumstance which marks § 1. Usage of more distinctly the progress of modern civili- permanent sation than the institution of permanent di- missions. plomatic missions between different states. The rights of ambassadors were known and in some degree respected by the classic nations of antiquity. During the middle ages they were less distinctly recognised, and it was not until the seventeenth century that they were firmly established. The institution of resident permanent legations at all the S § 2. Right to obligation ministers. European courts took place subsequently to the peace of Westphalia, and was rendered expedient by the increasing interest of the different states in each other's affairs growing out of more extensive commercial and political relations, and more refined speculations respecting the balance of power. Hence the rights of legation have become definitely ascertained, and incorporated into the international code. Every independent state has a right to send send, and public ministers to, and receive ministers from, to receive, any other sovereign state with which it desires public to maintain the relations of peace and amity. No state, strictly speaking, is obliged, by the positive law of nations, to send or receive public ministers, although the usage and comity of nations seem to have established a sort of reciprocal duty in this respect. It is evident, however, that this cannot be more than an imperfect obligation, and must be modified by the nature and importance of the relations to be maintained between different states by means of diplomatic intercourse.1 1 Vattel, Droit des Gens, liv. iv. ch. 5, §§ 55—65. Rutherforth's Institutes, vol. ii. b. ii. ch. 9, § 20. Mar Rights to what longing. How far the rights of legation belong to § 3. dependent or semi-sovereign states, must of legation, depend upon the nature of their peculiar rela- states betion to the superior state under whose protection they are placed. Thus, by the treaty concluded at Kainardgi, in 1774, between Russia and the Porte, the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, placed under the protection of the former power, have the right of sending chargés d'affaires of the Greek communion to represent them at the court of Constantinople.2 So also of confederated states; their right of sending public ministers to each other, or to foreign states, depends upon the peculiar nature and constitution of the union by which they are bound together. Under the constitution of the former German empire, and that of the present Germanic confederation, this right is preserved to all the princes and states composing the federal union. Such was also the former constitution of the United Provinces of the Low Countries, and such is now that of the Swiss confederation. By the constitution tens, Précis du Droit des Gens Moderne de l'Europe, liv. vii. ch. 1, §§ 187-190. 2 Vattel, liv. iv. ch. 5, § 60. Kluber, Droit des Gens Moderne de l'Europe, st. 2. tit. 2, ch. 3, § 175. |