law of nation

LAW OF NATIONS. The science which teaches the rights subsisting between 
nations or states, and the obligations correspondent to those rights. 
Vattel's Law of Nat. Prelim. Sec. 3. Some complaints, perhaps not unfounded, 
have been made as to the want of exactness in the definition of this term. 
Mann. Comm. 1. The phrase "international law" has been proposed, in its 
stead. 1 Benth. on Morals and Legislation, 260, 262. It is a system of rules 
deducible by natural reason from the immutable principles of natural 
justice, and established by universal consent among the civilized 
inhabitants of the world; Inst. lib. 1, t. 2, Sec. 1; Dig. lib. 1, t. 1, l. 
9; in order to decide all disputes, and to insure the observance of good 
faith and justice in that intercourse which must frequently occur between 
them and the individuals belonging to each or it depends upon mutual 
compacts, treaties, leagues and agreements between the separate, free, and 
independent communities. 
     2. International law is generally divided into two branches; 1. The 
natural law of nations, consisting of the rules of justice applicable to the 
conduct of states. 2. The positive law of nations, which consist of, 1. The 
voluntary law of nations, derived from the presumed consent of nations, 
arising out of their general usage. 2. The conventional law of nations, 
derived from the express consent of nations, as evidenced in treaties and 
other international compacts. 3. The customary law of nations, derived from 
the express consent of nations, as evidenced in treaties and other 
international compacts between themselves. Vattel, Law of Nat. Prel. 
     3. The various sources and evidence of the law of nations, are the 
following: 1. The rules of conduct, deducible by reason from the nature of 
society existing among independent states, which ought to be observed among 
nations. 2. The adjudication of international tribunals, such as prize 
courts and boards of arbitration. 3. Text writers of authority. 4. 
Ordinances or laws of particular states, prescribing rules for the conduct 
of their commissioned cruisers and prize tribunal's. 5. The history of the 
wars, negotiations, treaties of peace, and other matters relating to the 
public intercourse of nations. 6. Treaties of peace, alliance and commerce, 
declaring, modifying, or defining the pre-existing international law. Wheat. 
Intern. Law, pt. 1, c. 1, Sec. 14. 
     4. The law of nations has been divided by writers into necessary and 
voluntary; or into absolute and arbitrary; by others into primary and 
secondary, which latter has been divided into customary and conventional. 
Another division, which is the one more usually employed, is that of the 
natural and positive law of nation's. The natural law of nations consists of 
those rules, which, being universal, apply to all men and to all nations, 
and which may be deduced by the assistance of revelation or reason, as being 
of utility to nations, and inseparable from their existence. The positive 
law of nations consists of rules and obligations, which owe their origin, 
not to the divine or natural law, but to human compacts or agreements, 
either express or implied; that is, they are dependent on custom or 
convention. 
     5. Among the Romans, there were two sorts of laws of nations, namely, 
the primitive, called primarium, and the other known by the name of 
secundarium. The primarium, that is to say, primitive or more ancient, is 
properly the only law of nations which human reason suggests to men; as the 
worship of God, the respect and submission which children have for their 
parents, the attachment which citizens have for their country, the good 
faith which ought to be the soul of every agreement, and the like. The law 
of nations called secundarium, are certain usages which have been 
established among men, from time to time, as they have been felt to be 
necessary. Ayl. Pand. B. 1, t. 2, p. 6. 
     As to the law of, nations generally, see Vattel's Law of Nations; 
Wheat. on Intern. Law; Marten's Law of Nations; Chitty's Law of Nations; 
Puffend. Law of Nature and of Nations, book 3; Burlamaqui's Natural Law, 
part 2, c. 6; Principles of Penal Law, ch. 13; Mann. Comm. on the Law of 
Nations; Leibnitz, Codex Juris Gentium Diplomaticus; Binkershoek, 
Quaestionis Juris Publici, a translation of the first book of which, made by 
Mr. Duponceau, is published in the third volume of Hall's Law Journal; 
Kuber, Droit des Gens Modeme de l'Europe; Dumont, Corps Diplomatique; Mably, 
Droit Public de l'Europe; Kent's Comm. Lecture 1.