NATIONS AND SOVEREIGN STATES.

pact of 1815, consists of a union between the then twenty-two Cantons of Switzerland; the object of which is declared to be the preservation of their freedom, independence, and security against foreign attack, and of domestic order and tranquillity. The several Cantons guarantee to each other their respective constitutions and territorial possessions. The Confederation has a common army and treasury, supported by levies of men. and contributions of money, in certain fixed proportions, among the different Cantons. In addition to these contributions, the military expenses of the Confederation are defrayed by duties on the importation of foreign merchandise, collected by the frontier Cantons, according to the tariff established by the Diet, and paid into the common treasury. The Diet consists of one deputy from every Canton, each having one vote, and assembles every year, alternately, at Berne, Zurich, and Lucerne, which are called the directing Cantons (vorort). The Diet has the exclusive power of declaring war, and concluding treaties of peace, alliance, and commerce, with foreign States. A majority of three-fourths of the votes is essential to the validity of these acts; for all other purposes, a majority is sufficient. Each Canton may conclude separate military capitulations and treaties, relating to economical matters and objects of police, with foreign powers; provided they do not contravene the federal pact, nor the constitutional rights of the other Cantons. The Diet provides for the internal and external security of the Confederation; directs the operations, and appoints the commanders of the federal army, and names the ministers deputed to other foreign States. The direction of affairs, when the Diet is not in session, is confided to the directing Canton (vorort,) which is empowered to act during the recess. The character of directing Canton alternates every two years, between Zurich, Berne, and Lucerne. The Diet may delegate to the directing Canton, or vorort, special full powers, under extraordinary circumstances, to be exercised when the Diet is not in session; adding, when

it thinks fit, federal representatives, to assist the vorort in the direction of the affairs of the Confederation. In case of internal or external danger, each Canton has a right to require the aid of the other Cantons; in which case, notice is to be immediately given to the vorort, in order that the Diet may be assembled, to provide the necessary measures of security (2).

The compact, by which the sovereign Cantons of Switzerland are thus united, forms a federal body, which, in some respects, resembles the Germanic Confederation, whilst in others it more nearly approximates to the American Constitution. Each Canton retains its original sovereignty unimpaired, for all domestic purposes, even more completely than the German States; but the power of making war, and of concluding treaties of peace, alliance, and commerce, with foreign States, being exclusively vested in the federal Diet, all the foreign relations of the country necessarily fall under the cognizance of that body. In this respect, the present Swiss Confederation differs materially from that which existed before the French Revolution of 1789, which was, in effect, a mere treaty of alliance for the common defence against external hostility, but which did not prevent the several Cantons from making separate treaties with each other, and with foreign powers (a).

Since the French Revolution of 1830, various changes have taken place in the local constitutions of the different Cantons, tending to give them a more democratic character; and several attempts have been made to revise the federal pact, so as to give it more of the character of a supreme federal government, or Bundesstaat, in respect to the internal relations of the Confederation. Those attempts have all proved abortive; and Switzerland still remains subject to the federal pact of 1815, except that three of the original Cantons,-Basle, Unterwalden, and Appenzel,-have been dismembered, so as to increase the whole number of Cantons to twenty-five.

(2) Marten's Nouveau Recueil, tom. viii. p. 173.

(a) Merlin, Répertoire, tit. Ministre Public.

w.

But as each division of these three original Cantons is entitled to half a vote only in the Diet, the total number of votes still remains twenty-two, as under the original Federal pact (b).

§ 59a.

the Swiss

In 1848, the Swiss Constitution was remodelled, but the essential Changes in principles of the pact of 1815 were maintained. The Cantons re- Constitution tained their sovereignty, except where it was limited by the con- in 1848 and stitution; they exercised all rights that were not conferred on the 1874. Federal Government. All political alliances between the Cantons were forbidden; but they were entitled to enter into conventions among themselves for regulating matters appertaining to legislation, the Administration of Justice, &c., subject to the approval of the Federal authority. The Federal Council represented the Cantons in their relation to foreign States. The rights of declaring war, of making peace, and of entering into treaties were vested, as before, exclusively in the Federal Government. The supreme authority of the Union was vested in a Federal assembly, consisting of two houses. -a national council elected directly by the people, and a council of States composed of two deputies from each Canton. The Federal Council was composed of seven persons chosen from all the citizens eligible for the National Council, but no two members of it were to come from the same Canton. They retained their office for three years, and from among them a President was annually to be chosen. This body constituted the executive authority of the Confederation (c). In 1874 the Swiss Constitution was again revised, and some serious changes were made. The power of the Federal Government was greatly strengthened, and the maintenance and control of the army was conferred upon it (d). Switzerland has now ceased to be a system of confederated States (Staatenbund), and has become a compositive State (Bundesstaat) (e).

(b) Wheaton, Hist. Law of Nations, pp. 494-496.

(c) [See Calvo, ii. § 55.]

(d) [Annual Reg. 1874, p. 288. Calvo, loc. cit.]

(e) [Statesman's Year-Book, 1877, Art. Switzerland.]

PART SECOND.

ABSOLUTE INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS OF STATES.

CHAPTER I.

RIGHT OF SELF-PRESERVATION AND INDEPENDENCE.

THE rights which sovereign States enjoy with regard to one another may be divided into rights of two sorts: primitive, or absolute rights; conditional, or hypothetical rights (a).

Every State has certain sovereign rights, to which it is entitled as an independent moral being; in other words, because it is a State. These rights are called the absolute international rights of States, because they are not limited to particular circumstances.

The rights to which sovereign States are entitled, under particular circumstances, in their relations with others, may be termed their conditional international rights; and they cease with the circumstances which gave rise to them. They are consequences of a quality of a sovereign State, but consequences which are not permanent, and which are only produced under particular circumstances. Thus war, for example, confers on belligerent or neutral States certain rights, which cease with the existence of the war.

Of the absolute international rights of States, one of the most essential and important, and that which lies at

(a) Klüber, Droit des Gens moderne de l'Europe, § 36.

the foundation of all the rest, is the right of self-preservation. It is not only a right with respect to other States, but a duty with respect to its own members, and the most solemn and important which the State owes to them. This right necessarily involves all other incidental rights, which are essential as means to give effect to the principal end.

defence

the equal rights of other States,

or by treaty.

$62. Among these is the right of self-defence. This again Right of selfinvolves the right to require the military service of all its modified by people, to levy troops and maintain a naval force, to build fortifications, and to impose and collect taxes for all these purposes. It is evident that the exercise of these absolute sovereign rights can be controlled only by the equal correspondent rights of other States, or by special compacts freely entered into with others, to modify the exercise of these rights.

In the exercise of these means of defence, no independent State can be restricted by any foreign power. But another nation may, by virtue of its own right of self-preservation, if it sees in these preparations an occasion for alarm, or if it anticipates any possible danger of aggression, demand explanations; and good faith, as well as sound policy, requires that these inquiries, when they are reasonable and made with good intentions, should be satisfactorily answered (b).

Thus, the absolute right to erect fortifications within the territory of the State has sometimes been modified by treaties, where the erection of such fortifications has been deemed to threaten the safety of other communities, or where such a concession has been extorted in the pride of victory, by a power strong enough to dictate the conditions of peace to its enemy. Thus, by the Treaty of Utrecht, between Great Britain and France, confirmed by that of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, and of Paris, in 1763, the French government engaged to demolish the fortifications of Dunkirk. This stipulation, so humiliating to France, was effaced in the treaty of peace concluded

(b) [Heffter, § 40.]