international law

International law is a part of our law and as such is the law of all States of the Union, but it is a part of our law for the application of its own principles, and these are concerned with international rights and duties and not with domestic rights and duties.

The system of rules which Christian states acknowledge to be obligatory upon them in their relations to each other and to, each other's subjects. It is the jus inter gentes, as distinguished from the jms gentium. The rules of conduct regulating the intercourse of states. Halleck, Int. Law, 41; Davis, Int. Law, i 2. It consists of those rules of conduct which reason deduces as consonant to justice from the nature of the society existing among independent nations, with such definitions and modifications as may be established by mutual consent. Wheaton, Int. Law, § 14. International law has been divided into (1) public, and (2) private, under which division public international law is the law of nations as above defined, while private international law consists of the rules by which courts determine within what national jurisdiction an action or proceeding falls, or by what national law it should be decided. Glenn, Int. Law, § 2. Various divisions of international law have been proposed, but none are of any great importance. One has been into natural and voluntary law, in which latter conventional or treaty law and customary are embraced. Another, somewhat similar, separates international rules into those which are deducible from general natural jus, those which are derived from the idea of estate, and those which grow out of simple compact. Whatever division be made, it is to be observed that nations are voluntary, first, in deciding the question what intercourse they vdll hold with each other; second, that they are voluntary in defining their rights and obligations, moral claims and duties, although these have an objective existence beyond the control of the will of nations; and third, that, w Ken international law has arisen by the free assent of those who enter into certain arrangements, obedience to its provisions is as truly in accordance with natural law, which requires the observance of contracts, as if natural law had been intuitively discerned or revealed from heaven, and no consent had been necessary at the outset. )

Nature and Sources. International law Is the law governing the relations between states. It is sometimes called Public International Law to distinguish it from Private International Law or, as the latter should more properly be called, the Conflict of Laws (q. v.). Private International law Is the law which is applied when citizens of different nations are parties to a suit or other legal proceeding. Since it does not involve nations themselves, but only their citizens, it has no claim to the name “international.” See Pbi-

The customary law which determines the rights and regulates the intercourse of nations; the law of nations.

The law which regulates the intercourse of nations; the law of nations. 1 Kent, Comm. 1, 4. The customary law which determines the rights and regulates the intercourse of independent states in peace and war. 1 Wildm. Int. Law, 1. The system of rules and principles, founded on treaty, custom, precedent, and the consensus of opinion as to justice and moral obligation, which civilized nations recognize as binding upon them in their mutual dealings and relations. Public international law is the body of rules which control the conduct of independent states in their relations with each other. Private international law is that branch of municipal law which determines before the courts of what nation a particular action or suit should be brought, and by the law of what nation it should be determined; in other words, it regulates private rights as dependent on a diversity of municipal laws and jurisdictions applicable to the persons, facts, or things in dispute, and the subject of it is hence sometimes called the "conflict of laws." Thus, questions whether a given person owes allegiance to a particular state where he is domiciled, whether his status, property, rights, and duties are governed by the lex situs, the lex loci, the lex fori, or the lex domicilii, are questions with which private international law has to deal. Sweet.

Customs and precedents affecting intercourse between nations, or persons of different nations, and sanctioned by usage or approval of nations generally. International law, Private international law the law of the •within the courts of another nation; of laws." So International public lic or criminal cases.