Treaty rights

“ Subject to any contrary stipulations which may be provided for in the present treaty, the Allied and Associated Powers reserve the right to retain and liquidate all property, rights, and interests belonging at the date of the coming into force of the present treaty to German nationals, or companies controlled by them, within their territories, colonies, possessions, and protectorates including territories ceded to them by the present treaty. ”

“ France, England, and all other nations have a right to cruise on our coasts; a right not derived from our permission, but from the law of nature. To render this more advantageous, France has secured to herself, by a treaty with us, (as she has done also by a treaty with Great Britain, in the event of a war with us or any other nation) two special rights. 1. Admission for her prizes and privateers into our ports. ”

“ And, as I have already observed, in every treaty in which the new rule is conceded, its converse, viz., that "enemies" ships should make enemies' goods (i.e, that neutral goods should be seizable in enemies' ships) was likewise stipulated; and it was never so much as urged that a particular treaty, or any number of particular treaties, with particular nations, making a particular concession, could create a new law of nations, or change the old law of nations, as a law of nations, whatever exceptions to it they conventionally introduced. ”

“ His special subject is the positive law of nations—the whole of the rights and obligations actually established between nations. What has become a law in the intercourse of two or three or even the majority of the Powers of Europe, whether by treaty or from custom, need not establish rights and obligations for the other Powers, Still, by comparing the treaties that the Powers of Europe have made among themselves, one with another, we are led to certain principles that have been adopted almost universally by Powers that have made treaties on the same subject. ”

“ The stipulations respecting the rights of citizenship, and the delivery of persons fleeing from justice or escaping from bondage, are not grants of power to the General Government, to be executed by it in derogation of State authority, but they are in the nature of treaty stipulations, resting for their fulfilment upon the enlightened patriotism and good faith of the several States. ”

“ The 8th article of the treaty of Paris declares that the cession of sovereignty 'cannot in any respect impair the property or rights which, by law, belong to the peaceful possession of property of all kinds,' etc., but that stipulation does not relate to the rights connected with trades and professions. ”

“ It is to be considered, that treaties constitute solemn compacts of binding obligation among nations; and unless they are scrupulously obeyed, and enforced, no foreign nation would consent to negotiate with us; or if it did, any want of strict fidelity on our part in the discharge of the treaty stipulations would be visited by reprisals, or war. [11] It is, therefore, indispensable, that they should have the obligation and force of a law, that they may be executed by the judicial power, and be obeyed like other laws. ”

“ None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army; to keep ours armed and disciplined, is therefore at all times important, but especially so at a moment when rights the most essential to our welfare have been violated, and an infraction of treaty committed without color or pretext; ”

“ The National Government, by virtue of its control of our foreign relations is entitled to employ the resources of diplomatic negotiations and to effect such an international settlement as may be found to be appropriate, through treaty, agreement, of arbitration, or otherwise. ”

“ Chairman, I conceive that neither the life nor property of any citizen, nor the particular right of any state, can be affected by a treaty. The lives and properties of European subjects are not affected by treaties, which are binding on the aggregate community in its political, social capacity. ”

“ Enough has been said to show, that, if such a sovereignty could be exercised after a treaty has been signed, it would be a power to change materially the relations which the people of a ceded territory had to each other ”

“ By the Law of Nations, in the absence of any express stipulation, a treaty is of perpetual obligation on both parties,—to be abrogated only by a new treaty having the assent of both parties, or by the act of one party, alleging bad faith or hostile intent in the other, and on this account declaring before the civilized world a release from all its obligations. ”

“ It is very difficult to understand how any different doctrine can be sustained. A treaty is primarily a compact between independent nations. It depends for the enforcement of its provisions on the interest and the honor of the governments which are parties to it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ No nation looks, in its intercourse, under a treaty, with another to any but the executive government. Every nation has a right to say with what act she will be satisfied as fulfilling a treaty stipulation, the other party to the treaty reserving the same right. ”

“ What demonstrates the entire propriety of this construction is, that in the 18th article of the treaty, the terms 'subjects,' 'people,' and 'inhabitants,' are indiscriminately used as synonymous, to designate the same persons in both countries, and in cases obviously within the scope of the preceding articles. Indeed, in the language of the law of nations, which is always to be consulted in the interpretation of treaties, a person domiciled in a country, and enjoying the protection of its sovereign, is deemed a subject of that country. He owes allegiance to the country, while he resides in it ”

“ 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., 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; and treaties in the nature of a definite transaction (Rechtsgeschäft) are opposed to those which aim at establishing a general rule of conduct (Rechtssatz) . ”

“ The idea of a requisition of a foreign nation upon the judiciary of another, much more upon the humble magistrate of another, demanding, as of right, the fulfilment of treaty obligations, is certainly novel, and one that I would not willingly attribute to the distinguished men who negotiated this one, nor to the governments that ratified it. So extraordinary an interpretation ought not to be given to the instrument, unless upon the plainest and most imperative terms. ”

“ The tendency of historical development is for the whole body of the law to be reduced to the first of these two forms—to be codified and expressed in the form of an international 58convention, to which all civilised states have given their express consent. Just as customary civil law tends to be absorbed in enacted law, so customary international law tends to be merged in treaty law. ”

“ When a nation binds itself by treaty, either to permit the entry of certain goods from one foreign country which it prohibits from all others, or to exempt the goods of one country from duties to which it subjects those of all others, the country, or at least the merchants and manufacturers of the country, whose commerce is so favoured, must necessarily derive great advantage from the treaty. ”

“ On the subject of treaties, our system is to have none with any nation, as far as can be avoided. The treaty with England has therefore, not been renewed, and all overtures for treaty with other nations have been declined. ”

“ Did not a treaty stipulation require the United States to 'endeavor by all means in their power to protect and defend this property?' Did not a treaty stipulation require us to 'extend to them all favor, protection and help?' Did not a treaty stipulation bind us to 'restore, entire, the property, to the true proprietors, as soon as due and sufficient proof should be made concerning the same?' If not, then is there no force and meaning in language; and the words of solemn treaties are an idle breath, of which nations may be as regardless as of the passing wind. ”

“ Or that the mere fact of a territory having been ceded by one sovereignty to another, opens it to a free commercial intercourse with all the world, as a matter of course, until the new possessor has legislated some terms upon which that may be done. There is no such commercial liberty known among nations, and the attempt to introduce it in this instance is resisted by all of those considerations which have made foreign commerce between nations conventional. 'The treaty that gives the right of commerce, is the measure and rule of that right.' Vattel, c. ”

“ There was an obvious difference between treaties of peace and those of commerce, because commercial treaties frequently clashed with the laws upon that subject; so that It was necessary to be ratified in Parliament. As a proof that our present Articles of Confederation were paramount, it was there expressed that France should enjoy certain privileges. Now, supposing any law had passed taking those privileges away, would not the treaty be a sufficient bar to any local or municipal laws? What sort of power is that which leaves individuals in full power to reject or approve? ”

“ The stipulations in this treaty are nearly all of such nature as not to respect objects of legislation. They respect objects which lie beyond the bounds of our sovereignty; and beyond these limits our laws cannot extend, as rules to regulate the conduct of subjects of foreign powers; and although some of these stipulations respect objects which are within the reach of our sovereignty, yet it is in such manner as to be not only pertinent, but perhaps absolutely necessary in forming the treaty. ”

“ You know that almost all publicists and also almost all Governments assert the existence of a customary rule according to which a vital change of circumstances after ratification of a treaty may be of such a kind as to justify a party in demanding to be released either from the whole treaty or from certain obligations stipulated in it. ”

“ None the less, the absolute right of a country to regulate these matters in its own discretion must be recognized as a matter of strict law. Any country, in the absence of treaty, may, at its pleasure, exclude foreigners from entering into its territory, for example. ”

“ I am mistaken if any men, bodies of men or Countries, will enter into any compact or treaty, if one of the three is to have a negative controul over the other two, but granting that it is an evil it will infallibly work its own cure.—there must be reciprocity or no Union. ”

“ Contracts between nations, as between individuals, must lose their force where the considerations fail.
“A treaty pernicious to the state is of itself void, where no change in the situation of either of the parties takes place. ”

“ The Plenipotentiaries of North Germany, of Austria-Hungary, of Great Britain, of Italy, of Russia, and of Turkey, assembled to-day in Conference, recognize that it is an essential principle of the law of nations that no Power can liberate itself from the engagements of a treaty, nor{544} modify the stipulations thereof, unless with the consent Powers by means of an amicable arrangement. ”

“ The two first of these cases establish these principles: that grants of land in a disputed territory, made by a government in possession thereof, during peace with a nation which is entitled to its dominion and propriety, are valid by the law of nations, without any treaty stipulation ”