It is surely notorious that the delegates of a Power, by agreeing to the draft of a treaty, give to it no international validity, which results only when the treaty has been ratified by their Government.
Holland emphasizes that mere agreement by delegates does not confer international validity to treaties until ratified by their governments.
Share
More from Thomas Erskine Holland
Great Britain, for one, has no desire for an acre of new territory on the American continent.
This being so, it is necessary to recognise also that increased humanity in the mode of making war has in reality followed upon the gradual softening of manners.
Objections might, of course, be made to them as unlikely to produce their hoped-for effect, or as repugnant to our feelings of humanity or honour.
Every law presupposes an authority to superintend and direct its execution, and international conventions are supported by no such authority.
Other voices in this conversation
