Thomas Erskine Holland

“ The analogy between treaty-making and legislation is striking when a congress agrees upon general principles which are afterwards accepted by a large number of states, as, for instance, in the case of the Geneva conventions for improving the treatment of the wounded. Many political treaties containing “transitory conventions,” with reference to recognition, boundary or cession, become, as it were, the title-deeds of the nations to which they relate. [2] But the closest analogy of a treaty is to a contract in private law. ”

“ The rude symmetry of the feudal system had been long ago destroyed by partial and unskilful adaptations to modern commercial life, effected at various dates and in accordance with various theories. The time had come for deliberate reconstruction, for inquiring whether the existence of many admitted evils was, as it was said to be, unavoidable; for proving that the needs of society may be classified and provided for by contrivances which shall not clash with one another because all shall be parts of a consistent whole. ”

“ General conventions, to which most of the European states are parties, were signed in 1883 at Paris for the protection of industrial, and in 1886 at Bern for the protection of literary and artistic, property, and, from 1899 onwards, a series of general treaties, to none of which is Great Britain a party, have been signed at the Hague, as the result of conferences, invited by the government of the Netherlands, for solving some of the more pressing questions arising out of “ the conflict of laws.” ”

“ It is sometimes said that a treaty must have a lawful object, but the danger of accepting such a statement is apparent from the use which has been made of it by writers who deny the validity of any cession of national territory, or even go so far as to lay down, with Fiore, that "all should be regarded as void which are in any way opposed to the development of the free activity of a nation, or which hinder the exercise of its natural rights. ”

“ Treaties have been classified on many principles, of which it will suffice to mention the more important. A “ personal treaty, ” having reference to dynastic interests, is contrasted with a “real treaty, ” which binds the nation irrespectively of constitutional changes; treaties creating outstanding obligations are opposed to “transitory conventions,” e.g. Classification. for cession of territory, recognition of independence, and the like, which operate irrevocably once for all, leaving nothing more to be done by the contracting parties ”

“ The independence of the United States of America was acknowledged by Great Britain in the treaty of peace signed at Parisin 1783. The boundary between the United States and the British possessions is regulated in detail by the treaties of Washington of 1842, 1846, 1871, 1903 and 1908. The territorial results of the war of 1898 between the United States and Spain are registered in the treaty of 1899, and those of the Russo-Japanese War in the treaty of Portsmouth of 1905. Various causes of possible misunderstanding between Great Britain and France were removed by the convention of 1904 ”

“ Whether or no he can be said to have founded a school, his doctrines have become so far part of the common thought of the time, that there is hardly an educated man who does not accept as too clear for argument truths which were invisible till Bentham pointed them out. ”

“ The making and the observance of treaties is necessarily a very early phenomenon in the history of civilization, and the theory of treaties was one of the first departments of international law to attract attention. ”

“ In Great Britain it resides in the executive (see the parliamentary debates upon the cession of Heligoland in 1890) ; sometimes, however, it is shared for all purposes, as in the United States, or for certain purposes only, as in many countries of the European continent, by the legislature, or by a branch of it. (2) There must be an expression of agreement. This is not (as in private law) rendered voidable by duress; e.g. the cession of a province, though extorted by overwhelming force, is nevertheless unimpeachable. ”

“ He mapped out the whole subject, dividing and subdividing it in accordance with the principle of “dichotomy.” Having reached his ultimate subdivisions he subjects each to the most thorough and ingenious discussion. His earlier writings exhibit a lively and easy style, which gives place in his later treatises to sentences which are awkward from their effort after unattainable accuracy, and from the newly-invented technical nomenclature in which they are expressed. Many of Bentham’s phrases, such as “international,” “utilitarian,” “codification,” are valuable additions to our language ”

“ This convention has now been superseded by the revised and amplified edition of it adopted by the second peace conference in 1907. The provisions of neither convention are obligatory, but merely “facultative,” amounting only to recommendations. Great efforts were made, especially in 1907, but without success, to draft a generally acceptable convention, making resort to arbitration compulsory, at any rate with reference to certain classes of questions. ”

“ A further cause of the termination of treaty obligations is a total change of circumstances, since a clause “rebus sic stantibus" is said to be a tacit condition in every treaty. [3] Such a contention can only be very cautiously admitted. ”

“ A year or two later he learnt to play the violin and to speak French. At Westminster school he obtained a reputation for Greek and Latin verse writing; and he was only thirteen when he was matriculated at Queen’s College, Oxford, where his most important acquisition seems to have been a thorough acquaintance with Sanderson’s logic. He became a B.A. in 1763, and in the same year entered at Lincoln’s Inn, and took his seat as a student in the queen’s bench, where he listened with rapture to the judgments of Lord Mansfield. ”

“ An ample inherited fortune permitted him to pursue his studies undistracted by the necessity for earning a livelihood, and to maximize the results of his time and labour by the employment of amanuenses and secretaries. ”

“ The second Hague conference, of 1907, besides revising the convention made by the first conference, of 1899, as to the laws of war on land, produced new conventions, dealing respectively with the opening of hostilities; neutral rights and duties in land warfare ”