5
Treaties
'Tout le monde sçait', wrote l'Abbé de Mably, 'que les Traités sont les archives des Nations, qu'ils renferment les titres de tous les peuples, les engagements réciproques qui les lient, les loix qu'ils se sont imposées, les droits qu'ils ont acquis ou perdus. II est, si je ne me trompe, peu de connoissances aussi importantes que celle-la pour des hommes d'Etat, & même pour de simples citoyens s'ils sçavent penser; il en est peu cependant qui soient plus négligées.'[1]
It was well said by the editor of a Collection of Treaties published in 1772 that to a statesman a Collection of Treaties is a code or body of Law, and to him is of the same use as is a Collection of the Statutes to the lawyer.[2] But their historical place and value must never be lost to sight. They are to be viewed as marking points in the movement of thought.[3]
The relation of a Treaty to 'the Law' may well give rise to doubt. On this thorny subject the conclusions of Madison,[4] the American statesman and one of the three contributors to The Federalist, had the approval of Sir Travers Twiss.[5] Treaties, said Madison, may be considered in several relations
- ↑ Le Droit Public de l'Europe, fondé sur les Traités, par M. l'Abbé de Mably, 1717 (2 vols.), 3rd ed. (3 vols.), 1764. Preface to vol. i.
- ↑ A Collection of all the Treaties of Peace, Alliance, and Commerce, between Great Britain and other Powers, from the Revolution in 1688, to the Present Time. 2 vols. (1772).
- ↑ W. E. Hall, cited above, p. 113.
- ↑ Examination of the British Doctrine, 1806, p. 39.
- ↑ The Law of Nations … in Time of Peace, 2nd ed. (1884), pp. 164–5.
