law of nation

1 definition found

law of nation - Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) :

  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.