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CHAPTER III.

OBJECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW.

SECTION 20. IN GENERAL.

In general the objects of the principles of international law are the various independent nations or states of the world. Individuals are concerned, in general, only in relation to their status as citizens of some particular country.

"It is true that occasionally individuals are interested in the questions raised, and are sometimes even the cause of international complications, perhaps of war, but it is not as individuals that public international law interferes in their behalf or condemns them. It is because individuals necessarily form a constituent part of every State, parts of which the nation as a whole is made up; and as no injury can be inflicted on one part of the body or by one member without the participation of the whole, so no member of the body politic can be injured without damage to the material interests, the dignity, and the honor of the whole. It is because of this blow to or by the State that public international law interferes in such matters." 1

SECTION 21. SOVEREIGN STATES.

Mr. Davis, in his recent work on International Law, thus describes a sovereign state:

"A sovereign state may, therefore, be defined as one which retains and exercises in their entirety its essential attributes of sovereignty, which has parted with none of them, but retains them all unimpaired. 1 Minor on Conflict of Laws, Sec. 2.

In this sense Russia, England, France, China, Japan, and the United States are sovereign states.

"From the point of view of international law, the attributes which are essential to the conception of a sovereign state are three in number-sovereignty, independence, and equality.

"The sovereignty of a state is its inherent right to assume and exercise jurisdiction over all questions arising within its boundaries, and to control and regulate the actions and legal relations of all persons within its territorial limits.

"The conception of independence is included in that of sovereignty, of which, indeed, it is the negative view. It involves an immunity from all interference from without in the purely internal affairs of a state and implies a corresponding obligation to abstain from similar interference in the internal affairs of other states.

"It has been seen that a state possesses a certain number of sovereign rights and powers. These rights are possessed in precisely the same number and to the same degree by every sovereign state. This is called the equality of states. It is not to be inferred from this definition that all states are equal in dignity, importance, or power. It is only asserted that each state possesses the same number of sovereign rights and powers, and each to the same degree that they are possessed by every other state. For example, England and Portugal have the same right to borrow money, to send ambassadors, and to make treaties of alliance. But whether one can borrow money at a lower rate of interest than the other, whether the ambassadors of both powers at Berlin have the same influence, and whether an alliance with one will be as advantageous

as with the other, are questions that depend upon the financial resources, political influence, and military power of each state, all of which are very unequal." "

SECTION 22. QUASI SOVEREIGN STATES.

The title of this section is used to designate all the various classes of states or political bodies which, although they fail to possess all the attributes of sovereign states, still possess certain of these attributes in a greater of less degree. Under this head will be included:

(a) Members of a confederation.

(b) Protectorates.

(c) Suzerainties.

(d) Colonies.

(e) Neutralized States.

(f) Belligerents.

SECTION 23. MEMBERS OF A CONFEDERATION.

"A confederation is an artificial state, resulting from the more or less complete union of two or more states. This involves the temporary or permanent surrender of some sovereign rights on the part of each of the confederated states which pass to, and are vested in, the artificial state created by the treaty of union, or constitution of the confederacy. The number and importance of the sovereign rights surrendered by the component states will determine the character and strength of the confederacy.'

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Confederations are of two general classes: first, those where the real sovereign power is left to the constituent states; and second, those where the real • Davis on International Law, ' Id., p. 37.

pp. 34-5-6.

sovereign power is granted to the central government. The United States was a confederation of the first class under the articles of Confederation, and of the second class under the Constitution. Germany and Switzerland are also countries which have passed from the first class into the second.

In about all confederations the first power granted to the central government is the control of foreign relations, with the result that International Law is seldom concerned with the constituent states.

SECTION 24. PROTECTORATES.

A protectorate is a state under the protection of some larger power. The protected states retain all powers not specifically resigned.

"States under protectors-protectorates-usually possess all powers not specifically resigned. States fully sovereign may demand, (1) that states under protectors afford reasonable protection to the subjects and to the property of subjects of fully sovereign states, and (2) that the protecting state use reasonable measures to give effect to the protection which it has assumed. Just how much responsibility the protecting state has depends upon the degree of protection exercised and assumed. The protectorate of Great Britain over the South African Republic by the agreement of 1884 was of a very moderate form. The right to veto within a certain time any treaty made with a foreign state, other than the Orange Free State and native princes, constituted practically the only restriction on the independence of the Republic. Great Britain has several other protectorates in Africa, over which the degree of authority varies. In many instances protectorates easily pass into colonies,

as in the case of Madagascar, which Great Britain recognized as under French protection in 1890, which protection the Queen of Madagascar accepted in October, 1895, and in August, 1896, Madagascar was declared a French colony." 4

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A state under suzerainty possesses only such powers as are specifically granted to it by the suzerain. Most of the modern instances of suzerainty have been in cases of various provinces of the Turkish Empire. In these instances suzerainty was the first step towards independence or the control of some European govern

ment.

SECTION 26. COLONIES.

In former times colonies were governed entirely by the mother country, and even today all matters of foreign affairs are thus determined. Many modern colonies, however, have been given a very complete power of local self-government, the most favored colony in this respect being the Australian Confederation.

SECTION 27. NEUTRALIZED STATES.

A permanently neutralized state is one the integrity of whose territory and independence have been guaranteed by the larger powers, and who, in consideration thereof, has surrendered the right of engaging in war, or making any treaty which might involve it in war. There are three of this class of states in Europe Belgium, Switzerland and Luxemburg. A similar agreement has been made by the powers with relation to the Congo Free State in Africa.

• Wilson and Tucker on International Law, Sec. 24.

Vol. XII.-3.

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