de Vattel: Of the Faith of Treaties

LONANG Library

• Historic Reference

• Organic Documents

LONANG Commentaries

• Legal Foundations

• Constitutional Law

• LONANG Curriculum

Tribunal of Justice

LONANG Institute

• Search Our Site

• About Us

• Contact Us

• Home

*New!*
Reassert the Rule of Law
Reform Civil Government
Reclaim The Church

* NOW - Buy this resource online! Click here * Of the Faith of Treaties§ 218. What is sacred among nations.§ 219. Treaties are sacred between nations.§ 220. The faith of treaties is sacred.§ 221. He who violates his treaties, violates the law of nations.§ 222. Right of nations against him who disre-§ 223. The law of nations violated by the popes.§ 224. This abuse authorized by princes.§ 225. Use of an oath in treaties. It does not constitute the obligation.§ 226. It does not change the nature of obligations.§ 227. It gives no pre-eminence to one treaty above another.§ 228. It cannot give force to a treaty that is invalid.§ 229. Asseverations.§ 230. The faith of treaties does not depend on the difference of religion.§ 231. Precautions to be taken in wording treaties.§ 232. Subterfuges in treaties.§ 233. An evidently false interpretation inconsistent with the faith of treaties.§ 234. Faith tacitly pledged.
   1. Resolution of the States-general, of the 15th of March, 1726, in answer to the Memorial of the Marquis de St. Philip, Ambassador of Spain.
   2. History of Poland, by the Chevalier de Solignac, vol. iv. 112. He quotes Dlugoss, Neugobauer, Sarnicki, Herburt, De Fulstin. etc.
   3. On these facts, see the French and German historians. — "Thus war was determined on in favor of the pope: and after cardinal Caraffia, by virtue of the powers vested in him by his holiness, had absolved the king from the oaths he had taken in ratification of the truce, he even permitted him to attack the emperor and his son without a previous declaration of hostilities." — De Thou, lib. svii.
   4. History of the Treaty of Westphalia, by Father Bougeant, in 12 mo. vi. p. 413.
   5. Choisy's History of Charles V. p. 282.
   6. At quid interest iter perjurum el mendacem? Qui mentiri solet, pejerare consuevit. Quem ego, ut menitiatur, inducere possum, ut pejeret, exorare facile potero: nam qui semel a veritate deflexit, hic non majori religione ad perjurium quam ad mendacium perduci consuevit. Quis enim deprecatione decorum, non conscientiæ fide commoveutri? Propterea, quæ pœ na ab diis immortalibus perjaro, hæc eadem mendaci constituta est. Non enim ex pactione verborum quibus jusjurandum comprehenditur, sed ex perfidia et malitia per quam insidiæ tenduntur alicui, dii immortales hominibus irasci et succensere consuerunt. Cicer. Orat. pro Q. Roscio, comœ do.
   7. De Jure Belli et Pads, lib. ii. cap. xvi. § 5.
   8. Literally, "laid down their iron or steel:" hence the perfidious quibble on the word iron, which cannot be so well rendered in English.
   9. Q. Fabvius Labeo, according to Valerius Maximus; Livy makes no mention of the transaction.
   10. Annal. lib. xii.
   11. Lib. iii. cap. xxiv. § 1.
   12. Livy, lib. xxxviii. cap. xxv.
   13. The Life of Valerian in Crevier's History of the Emperors.
   14. Llb. iii. cap. xxiv. § 5.