100. Embassador attempting against the sovereign’s life,
101. Two remarkable instances respecting the immunities of public ministers,
102. Whether reprisals may be made on an embassador,
103. Agreement of nations concerning the privileges of embassadors,
104. Free exercise of religion,
105. Whether an embassador be exempted from all imposts,
106. Obligation founded on use and custom,
107. A minister whose character is not public,
108. A sovereign in a foreign country,
CHAPTER VIII Of the Judge of Embassadors in Civil Cases.
110. The embassador is exempt from the civil jurisdiction of the country where he resides,
111. How he may voluntarily subject himself to it,
112. A minister who is a subject of the state where he is employed,
113. Immunity of the minister extends to his property,
114. The exemption cannot extend to effects belonging to any trade the minister may carry on,
115. nor to immovable property which he possesses in the country,
116. How justice may be obtained against an embassador,
CHAPTER IX Of the Embassador’s House and Domestics.
119. Exemption of an embassador’s carriages,
122. of the secretary of the embassy,
123. of the embassador’s couriers and dispatches,
124. The embassador’s authority over his retinue,
125. When the rights of an embassador expire,
126. Cases when new credentials are necessary,
THE
LAW
OF
NATIONS
Idea and general Principles of the Law of Nations.
§1. What is meant by a nation or state.
Nations or states are bodies politic, societies of men united together for the purpose of promoting their mutual safety and advantage by the joint efforts of their combined strength.
Such a society has her affairs and her interests; she deliberates and takes resolutions in common; thus becoming a moral person, who possesses an understanding and a will peculiar to herself, and is susceptible of obligations and rights.
§3. Definition of the law of nations.
To establish on a solid foundation the obligations and rights of nations, is the design of this work. The law of nations is the science which teaches the rights subsisting between nations or states, and the obligations correspondent to those rights.
In this treatise it will appear, in what manner states, as such, ought to regulate all their actions. We shall examine the obligations of a people, as well towards themselves as towards other nations; and by that means we shall discover the rights which result from those obligations. For, the right being nothing more than the power of doing what is morally possible, that is to say, what is proper and consistent with duty,—it is evident that right is derived from duty, or passive obligation,—the obligation we lie under to act in such or such manner. It is therefore <lvi> necessary that a nation should acquire a knowledge of the obligations incumbent on her, in order that she may not only avoid all violation of her duty, but also be able distinctly to ascertain her rights, or what she may lawfully require from other nations.
§4. In what light nations or states are to be considered.
Nations being composed of men naturally free and independent, and who, before the establishment of civil societies, lived together in the state of nature,—nations or sovereign states are to be considered as so many free persons living together
