Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 9.djvu/323

HARVARD LAW REVIEW. VOL. IX. DECEMBER, 26, 1895. NO. 5. JUSTICE ACCORDING TO LAW.^ THE only essential conditions for the existence of law and legal institutions are the existence of a political commu- nity, and the recognition by its members of settled rules binding upon them in that capacity. Those conditions are present in all societies of men who are not mere savages. Even among civil- ized men, on the other hand, they may be suspended in particular circumstances. We can get one example by supposing a boat's crew from a wrecked ship, made up of different nationalities in about equal proportions, to land on an island in the high seas which is neither occupied nor claimed by any civilized power. Such a party would, it is conceived, be remitted to what was once called " the state of nature," aided by whatever conventions they might agree upon as appropriate to their situation. A lawyer would probably advise them to consider themselves as still under the law of the ship's flag; but it is difficult to say that this or any other law would have any real authority apart from the agreement of the whole party. Practically, the law of nature, or, in less ambiguous terms, the common rules of civilized morals and the dictates of obvious ex- pediency, would have to suffice for the present need. Again, it is not very difficult for civilized men to find themselves, without any violent accident, in places where it is hard to say 1 A public Lecture delivered in the University of Oxford, 1895. 39