Rebus sic stantibus

A name given to a tacit condition, said to attach to all treaties, that they shall cease to be obligatory so soon as the state of facts and conditions upon which they were founded has substantially changed. Taylor, Int. L. § 394; 1 Oppenheim, Int. L. 550; Grotius, oh. XVI, § XXV; Vattel B. 2, c. 13, § 200; Hall, Int. L. § 116; Hershey, Int. Pub. L. 319. The change of government from a monarchy to a republic was treated as not terminating treaties; 5 Moore, Dig. Int. L. 335; nor a successful revolution; id. 337; nor an alliance of one of the treaty powers with a third power; id. But as the result of the changes in the state of Europe effected by the wars of Napoleon, all the treaties of the United States with European powers were considered as terminated, excepting only one with Spain of 1795; id. 338.