to the Law of Nations according to the several questions that are to be decided.
'They may be considered as simply repeating or affirming the General Law: they may be considered as making exceptions to the General Law, which are to be a particular Law to the parties themselves: they may be considered as explanatory of the Law of Nations on points where its meaning is otherwise obscure or unsettled, in which case they are first a Law between the parties themselves, and next a sanction to the General Law, according to the reasonableness of the explanation, and the number and character of the parties to it: lastly, treaties may be regarded as forming a voluntary or positive Law of Nations. Whether the stipulations of a treaty are to be considered as an affirmance, or an exception or an explanation, may sometimes appear upon the face of the treaty; sometimes, being naked stipulations, their character must be determined by resorting to other evidences of the Law of Nations. In other words, the question concerning the Treaty must be decided by the Law, not the question concerning the Law by the Treaty.'
Collection of Treaties
There are many collections[1] of treaties, and of treaty-documents, both general and national. Only a few need be mentioned here.
- (a) General:
Dumont, Corps Universel Diplomatique;[2]
Koch et Schöll, Histoire abrégée des Traités from 1648 to 1815,[3] with full text of some and a connecting narrative, and the revival and continuation of the work by leComte de Garden;
- ↑ A considerable impetus to the study of treaties was given by Leibnitz towards the beginning of the eighteenth century. On the unfavouring eyes with which the Cabinets of Europe viewed the publication of their treaties in a collection, see Travers Twiss, op. cit., pp. xxix–xxx.
- ↑ 8 vols., 1726–31.
- ↑ 15 vols., 1815–17.
