"A great part of the law of nations stands upon the usage and practice of nations. It is introduced, indeed, by general principles: but it travels with those general principles only to a certain extent: and, if it stops there, you are not at liberty to go further, and to say, that mere general speculations would bear you out in a further progress— thus, for instance, on mere general principles it is lawful to destroy your enemy; and mere general principles make no great difference as to the manner by which this is to be effected; but the conventional law of mankind, which is evidenced in their practice, does make a distinction, and allows some, and prohibits other, modes of destruction."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Sir W. Scott, "The Flad Oyen" (1799), 1 C. Rob. 140.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/International_law
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
International law
35 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by International law →
Related Quotes
"Against meditated aggression it furnishes no shield whatever. In practice it is found that International Law is alway…"
"The law of nations is founded upon reason and justice, and the rules of conduct governing individual relations betwee…"
"There had been fearful slaughters of soldiers in the First World War, and much of the accumulated treasure of the nat…"
"It was disclosed that the U.S. Army had prohibited the press, the Red Cross, and other outside observers from enterin…"
"Orwell's 1984 explained that "the special function of certain Newspeak words … was not so much to express meanings as…"
"The establishment of the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has been considered illegal by the…"
"On April 18, 2006, I had my first confirmed kill. This man was innocent. He was walking back to his house, and I shot…"
"The European Union and many of its countries, which used to take initiatives in the United Nations for peaceful settl…"
"A lawsuit against members of the Bush administration for their role in the invasion of Iraq recently received notewor…"
"As individuals and as nations we live in states of society utterly different from each other. As a collection of indi…"