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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt:...application of the precepts of natural law, which obliges nations to practice the same duties that it prescribes for individuals, constitutes the law of nations, which, when considered according to its origin (which is based upon natural law), is also called the primitive or necessary law of nations. The origins of international law are therefore three in number: (1) The reason and the conscience of what is just and unjust, independent of any prescription; (2) custom; (3) public treaties. The principles, practices, and usages of the law of nations, in accordance with these limits, regulate the conduct of nations, and it is for this reason that in their generality they constitute international law. Conventional law may abrogate the law of custom, but it loses its character as a law if it establishes provisions at variance with natural law." Le Droit International Maritime (Portu(iuene), translated by H. Boutiron, 188G, Ft. 1, ch. 1, p. 46. Looking, then, to the reason of the thing, and to the concurrence of views upon this point, among jurists and publicists, I must withhold my assent from the proposition that this Tribunal, in ascertaining whether the law of nations sanctions and supports the claim of property made by the United States, may not consider--the question not being concluded by treaties or precedents--what is demanded in respect to the subject of controversy by the law of nature, that is, by the principles of justice, sound reason, morality, and equity, as recognized and approved by civilized peoples. The question was propounded in argument whether any precedent precisely in point was recorded in the writings of publicists, or in the judgments of the courts, or in the statutes or ordinances of maritime nations, that supports the...