Thomas Barclay

“ ASYLUM, RIGHT OF (Fr. droit d’asile; Ger. Asylrecht) , in international law, the right which a state possesses, by virtue of the principle that every independent state is sole master within its boundaries, of allowing fugitives from another country to enter or sojourn upon its territory. ”

“ PACIFIC BLOCKADE, a term invented by Hautefeuille, the French writer on International Maritime Law, to describe a blockade exercised by a great power for the purpose of bringing pressure to bear on a weaker state without actual war. That it is an act of violence, and therefore in the nature of war, is undeniable, seeing that it can only be employed as a measure of coercion by maritime powers able to bring into action such vastly superior forces to those the resisting state can dispose of that resistance is out of the question. ”

“ Neutrality is the most progressive branch of modern International Law. It is also that branch of International Law in which the practice of self-restraint takes the place of the direct sanctions of domestic law most effectively. The rapid changes it is undergoing are in fact bringing the state-system of the modern world nearer to the realization of the dream of many great writers and thinkers, of a community of nations just as much governed by legal methods as any community of civilized men. ”

“ Let us see what France and Germany and the United States are doing to improve their human machinery, which is a far more important matter than even the tools it uses, and is infinitely more important than any theoretical experiments with Customs duties. If we are lagging behind, it is distinctly in the education of those on whose efficiency as producers and distributors our prosperity is dependent. ”

“ EXTERRITORIALITY, a term of international law, used to denominate certain immunities from the application of the rule that every person is subject for all acts done within the boundaries of a state to its local laws. ”

“ There can be no antecedent claim or title from which any right of possession is derived, for if so it would not be a conquest. The assertion and enforcement of a right to possess a particular territory do not constitute a conquest of that territory. By the term conquest we understand the forcible acquisition of territory admitted to belong to the enemy. It expresses, not a right, but a fact, from which rights are derived. Until the fact of conquest occurs, there can be no rights of conquest. A title acquired by a conquest cannot, therefore, relate back to a period anterior to the conquest. ”

“ In fact we must always have before our mind's eye that there is a common national interest which is the resultant of the resultants of our individual, class and industrial interests. We shall infallibly find that that resultant is in favour of law and order and peace and goodwill in our relations with other nations, for what is true of the individual in private life and of the community in municipal life, can only be true of the nation in international life. ”

“ This became gradually the recognized view, and when in 1856 the powers represented at the congress of Paris inserted in the declaration there adopted that “blockades in order to be binding must be effective, that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of an enemy,” they were merely enunciating a rule which neutral states had already become too powerful to allow belligerents to disregard.
Blockade is universally admitted to be a belligerent right to which under international law neutrals are obliged to submit. ”

“ An interesting point of American constitutional law has arisen out of the cession of the Philippines to the United States, through the fact that the federal constitution does not lend itself to the exercise by the federal congress of unlimited powers, such as are vested in the British parliament. The sole authority for the powers of the federal congress is a written constitution with defined powers. Anything done in excess of those powers is null and void. ”

“ The territorial waters of Her Majesty’s dominions in reference to the sea means such part of the sea adjacent to the coast of the United Kingdom, or the coast of some other part of Her Majesty’s dominions, as is deemed by international law to be within the territorial sovereignty of Her Majesty; and for the purpose of any offence declared by this act to be within the jurisdiction of the admiral, any part of the open sea within one marine league of the coast measured from low-water mark shall be deemed to be open sea within the territorial waters of Her Majesty’s dominions. ”

“ While the right of war was simply the right of the stronger, there was no room for neutral rights, for, without going back to the time of the ancients, the so-called rights of war and conquest are nothing but survivals of the right of brute strength. ”

“ Scope of a Treaty or Commerce.
I must begin with a definition.
It is usual to think of Treaties of Commerce as restricted to tariffs. Nothing is more erroneous and no popular error is more detrimental to an intelligent understanding of the subject. One unpropititious consequence of the error is that treaties of commerce are popularly supposed by some to be a counterblast to free trade, by others as a step towards it. In reality, treaties of commerce are simply agreements between States relating to trade carried on between them. ”

“ Since the adoption of the Hague Convention of 1907 respecting the limitation of the employment of force for the recovery of contract debts, the contracting powers are under agreement “not to have recourse to armed force for the recovery of contract debts claimed from the government of one country by the government of another country as being due to its nationals,” unless “the debtor state refuses or neglects to reply to an offer of arbitration, or after accepting the offer prevents any compromis from being agreed on, or after the arbitration fails to submit to the award” (Art. 1) . ”

“ Thus a foreign diplomatic agent cannot, like the sovereign he represents, waive his immunity by submitting to the British jurisdiction. The diplomatic immunity necessarily covers the residence of the diplomatic agent, which some writers describe as assimilated to territory of the state represented by the agent; but there is no consideration which can justify any extension of the immunity beyond the needs of the diplomatic mission resident within it. It is different with public ships in foreign waters. In their case the exterritoriality attaches to the vessel. ”

“ All that can be meant by such a proposition is that according to the well-understood rules of international law a change of sovereignty by cession ought not to affect private property, but no municipal tribunal has authority to enforce such an obligation. And if there is either an express or a well-understood bargain between the ceding potentate and the government to which the cession is made that private property shall be respected, that is only a bargain which can be enforced by sovereign against sovereign in the ordinary course of diplomatic pressure. ”

“ So much is it so, that most great powers have found it necessary for their self-protection to enter into defensive alliances with others, the direct object of which is the preservation of European peace by the threat of making war so gigantic a venture that no state will again embark on it “with a light heart.” ”

“ The blockading forces must not bar access to neutral ports or coasts.
Art. 19. Whatever may be the ulterior destination of a vessel or of her cargo, she cannot be captured for breach of blockade, if, at the moment, she is on her way to a non-blockaded port.
Art. 20. A vessel which has broken blockade outwards, or which has attempted to break blockade inwards, is liable to capture so long as she is pursued by a ship of the blockading force. If the pursuit is abandoned, or if the blockade is raised, her capture can no longer be effected. ”

“ Incidentally, I may say it is my experience that reason and honest, straightforward conduct in international relations always eventually come out victorious, just as the reasonable, straightforward, honest man in business is always eventually appreciated in his trade. A leading German man of business recently observed to me, "We would rather do business with an Englishman at a slight diminution of profit than with men of any other nation." ”

“ A government which is strong enough to maintain its authority, which is in possession of and is de facto administering country, is the government of that country, and, however just or interesting may be the cause of those who have been dispossessed, they are not entitled to treatment as belligerents. Thus in the South African War of 1899–1902 the British authorities, when the whole territory was occupied, manifestly beyond hope of recovery, might have ceased to treat the roving bands of armed men, who were still carrying on war, as belligerents. ”

“ International trade and intercourse have become so intricate that war can no longer be waged without causing the most serious loss to neutral nations, which, moreover, suffer from it without any of the possible contingent benefits it may procure for the immediate parties. ”

“ It is now also universally admitted that the above-quoted rule of the Declaration of Paris forms part of international law, independently of the declaration. Being, however, exclusively a belligerent right, it cannot be exercised except by a belligerent force. Even a de facto belligerent has the right to institute a blockade binding on neutrals if it has the means of making it effective, though the force opposed to it may treat the de facto belligerent as rebels. ”

“ In this respect it is an act of war, and any attempt to exercise it against a power strong enough to resist would be a commencement of hostilities, and at once bring into play the rights and duties affecting neutrals. On the other hand, the object and justification of a pacific blockade being to avoid war, that is general hostilities and disturbance of international traffic with the state against which the operation is carried on, rights of war cannot consistently be exercised against ships belonging to other states than those concerned. ”

“ In the case of the annexation of the territories of the Transvaal republic and Orange Free State, a rather complicated situation arose out of the facts, on the one hand, that the ceding states closed their own existence and left no recourse to third parties against the previous ruling authority, and, on the other, that, having no means owing to the de facto British occupation, of raising money by taxation, the dispossessed governments raised money by selling certain securities, more especially a large holding of shares in the South African Railway Company, to neutral purchasers. ”

“ A war is practically at an end when the position of the one belligerent renders the contest manifestly hopeless for the other belligerent.” [2] From that moment it is the duty of the conqueror to organize the regular government of the conquered territory on a footing of peace. As soon as this regular government has been established, to take human life, destroy property or otherwise disturb public order entails the penalties of the criminal law. ”

“ The South African War was exceptional, in that the Portuguese government exposed itself to no international difficulty through allowing a belligerent, whose final victory was certain, and of necessity entailed total suppression of the conquered belligerent, to cross its colonial territory. At the same time it is an unfortunate precedent of taking advantage of the practical powerlessness of neighbouring neutral states to commit a Violation of the law of nations, respect for which it is a primary duty of every self-respecting state to encourage. ”

“ I venture to express the opinion, at all events, that these conditions form the most secure basis any great industry could rest upon, which is dependent upon for foreign trade for 80 per cent. of its employment. The moderate return on the capital invested in the British cotton industry presents (except in small special sections) the greatest source of danger, as there is only a narrow margin between prosperity and adversity; but this applies to most staple industries, and what is applicable to our staple industries is equally so to those of our foreign rivals. ”

“ It is not even easy for the belligerent to observe absolutely the duty of doing no direct injury to neutral territory. A battle may be fought to the very edge of the neutral frontier, and shells may explode in any neutral town within the firing range of modern artillery. The present respect paid by belligerents to territorial waters is a palliative in the case of a seaboard frontier; but even the three-mile limit acknowledged by most countries would permit belligerent vessels with present range of artillery to fire landwards far into neutral territory. ”

“ Under the regime of M. Meline, the organizer of protection in France, the new general tariff, a very high, almost prohibitive, one, was to be applied wherever not reduced by treaty. The conventional one is composed of the minimum duties which have been granted to any nation; it applies to all who have the benefit of the most-favoured nation treatment. I may mention that the differences between the general and the minimum tariff range from about 50 to 70 per cent. The coercion of the United States was in the first instance the motive of the French tariff reformers. ”

“ Another, and, in some respects, more dangerous feature of an inchoate conception of state responsibility is the growing apart, so to speak, of certain British dependencies. The British state, for international purposes, is the British Empire, for domestic purposes it is the United Kingdom. Any limb of the former’s huge body can have interests different from those of the United Kingdom, and involve its responsibility. A significant step towards concentration of liability and control was taken by the Australian colonies in the federation brought about by the Commonwealth Act of 1900. ”

“ Let technical and commercial education be understood to be an essential branch of the work of developing the resources and forces of British industry, and be connected with this department.
Let our commercial department be in constant and daily touch with the trade interests of the country, be accessible to every man, as in the United States and our colonies, and accessible to workingmen as well as to employers. ”