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Pacta Sunt Servanda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2017

Hans Wehberg
Hans Wehberg*
Affiliation:
Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva; Institute of International Law
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Extract

Few rules for the ordering of Society have such a deep moral and religious influence as the principle of the sanctity of contracts: Pacta sunt servanda. In ancient times, this principle was developed in the Bast by the Chaldeans, the Egyptians and the Chinese in a noteworthy way. According to the view of these peoples, the national gods of each party took part in the formation of the contract. The gods were, so to speak, the guarantors of the contract and they threatened to intervene against the party guilty of a breach of contract. So it came to be that the making of a contract was bound up in solemn religious formulas and that a cult of contracts actually developed.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , October 1959 , pp. 775 - 786
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1959

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References

1 Cf. Baron Michel de Taube, , “L'inviolabilité des traié’ 32 Hague Academy Recueildes Cours 299 et seq. (1930, II ).Google Scholar

2 Eedslob, Kobert, Histoire des Grands Principles du Droit des Gens 107 (Paris, 1923).Google Scholar

3 Cf. Jenks, C. Wilfred, The Common Law of Mankind 144 and the bibliography set out therein (London, 1958).Google Scholar

4 Cf. Michel de Taube, loc cit. 321 et seq.

5 Second section, Ch. 23, qu. 1, c. 3.

6 Cf. Michel de Taube, loc. cit. 337 et seq.

7 Cf. Friedrich Meinecke, Die Idee der Staatsräson 31 ff., especially 50 ff. (Munich- Berlin, 1924) ; Ernst Beibstein, Völkerrecht. Eine Geschichte seiner Ideen in Lehreund Praxis, Vol. I , p. 241 ff. (Freiburg-Munich, 1958).

8 Friedrich Meinecke, op. cit. 56 ff.

9 8. Théol., 2, 2, q. 140. Cf. also Michel de Taube, loc. cit. 360 et seq.

10 See here and below, among others, Hermann Heller, Die Souveränität. Ein Beitrag zur Theorie des Staats- und “Völkerrechts 14 ff. (Berlin and Leipzig, 1927); Friedrich Meinecke, op. cit. 70 ff.; Alfred Verdross, Die Einheit des rechtlichen Weltbildes auf Grundlage der Völkerrechtsverfassung 14 ff. (Tübingen, 1923).

11 Cf. especially Georg Jellinek, Allgemeine Staatslehre 440 ff. (3rd ed., Berlin, 1914).

12 Georg Jellinek, op. cit. 740.

13 Friedrich Meinecke, op. cit. 80.

14 Hugo Grotius, De Jure belli ae pacis, Liber II, cap. 14, No. 1.

15 Vitoria, De potestate eivili, 21; Ernst Eeibstein, Völkerrecht, “Vol. I, p. 287.

16 Suárez, De legibus ac Deo legislatore, II, cap. XVIII, No. 19.

17 Compare especially Friedrich Meinecke, op. cit. 273.

18 Samuel Pufendorf, De jure naturae et gentium, Book I I , chap. III , § 23; Book III, chaps. III , IV, §§ 1, 2.

19 Cornelius van Bynkershoek, Quaestionum juris publici libri duo (1737), I I , cap. 10.

20 Emer de Vattel, Droit des Gens, Book II , chap. XII, § 163.

21 Ernst Eeibstein, “Die Dialektik der souveranen Gleichheit bei Vattel,” 19 Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Eecht u. Völkerrecht 629 (1958).

22 Emer de Vattel, op. cit. Book I, chap. XVII, § 296; also 1 Reibstein, Völkerrecht 594.

23 Op. cit. 574.

24 Op. cit. 59.

25 Europäisches Volkerrecht 234, 235.

26 Alfred Verdross, Die Einheit des rechtlichen Weltbildes 4 ff.; Friedrich Meinecke, op. cit. 434 ff.

27 Alfred Verdross, op. cit. 6 ff.

28 Heffter, August Wilhelm, Das Europäische Völkerrecht der Gegenwart 144 (Berlin,1844).Google Scholar

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30 Georg Jellinek, Allgemeine Staatslehre 482 (3rd ed.).

31 Heinrich Triepel, , Völkerrecht und Landesrecht 79 (Leipzig, 1899).Google Scholar

32 D. Anzilotti, Lehrbuch des Völkerrechts, Vol. I, pp. 38 ff., 49 S. (Berlin and Leipzig,1929); in the same sense see also Karl Strupp, Grundzüge des positiven Völkerrechts; 11 (5th ed., Bonn and Cologne, 1932). Cf. also Hans Kelsen, 14 Hague Academy Recueil des Cours 299 et seq. (1926, IV); Eousseau, Charles, Principes généraux du. Droit international public, Vol. I, p. 359 et seq. (Paris, 1944).Google Scholar

S3 See also Jules Basdevant, 58 Hague Academy Recueil des Cours 643 (1936, IV).

34 Concurring among others: Bin Cheng, , General Principles of Law as applied by International Courts and Tribunals 105 et seq., 112 et seq. (London, 1953)Google Scholar; Georg Dahm, cVölkerrecht, Vol. I, p. 158 (Stuttgart, 1958); Sir Gerald Pitzmaurice, , in Symbolae Verzijl, p. 158 (The Hague, 1958)Google Scholar; Priedr, . August Preiherr von der Heydte, Völkerrecht, Vol. I, p. 67 (Cologne, 1958)Google Scholar ; Jean Spiropoulos, , Die allgemeinen Rechtsgrundsätze im Völkerrecht 64 (Kiel, 1928)Google Scholar; Alfred Verdross, Völkerrecht 23 (3rd ed., Vienna, 1955); see 18 Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Becht u. Völkerrecht 641, 648(1958).

35 Cf. Charles De Visscher, , Théories et Réalités en Droit International public 324 (Paris, 1953)Google Scholar: “ … treaties still remain the most powerful instrument for progress and for the diffusion of international law.” Cf. also above, p. 299.

36 The Arbitration Tribunal in the Matter of P.T.T. vs. B.C.A. has emphasized in itsopinion of April 1, 1932, the phrase Pacta sunt servanda as a general principle of law. See Recueil général, périodique et critique des décisions, conventions et lois relatives au droit international public et privé (La Pradelle) (1938) 2.3; Charles Bousseau, Principes généraux du Droit international public 360.

37 So particularly Jules Basdevant, loc. tit. 642; Paul Guggenheim, Traité’ de droit international public, Vol. I, p. 67 (Geneva, 1953); Hans Kelsen, finally, in Grundprobleme des Internation a l Bechts. Festschrift fur Jean Spiropoulos, p. 263 (Bonn, 1957); de Louter, J., Le Droit international public positif, “Vol. I , p. 471 (Oxford, 1920)Google Scholar; 1 Oppenheim-Lauterpacht, International Law 881 (8th ed., London, 1955); John B. Whitton, 49 Hague Academy Eecueil des Cours 217 et seq., 239 (1934,III ) ; Kunz, Josef L., “ The Meaning and the Range of the Norm Pacta Sunt Servanda,” 39 A.J.I.L. 180-197 (1945).Google Scholar

38 Judge D. Negulesco required a “usage immémorial” in his dissenting opinion to the decision of the Permanent Court of International Justice in the case of the European Danube Commission, Advisory Opinion, No. 14, p. 105.

39 See many examples in A. F. Frangulis, Théorie et Pratique des traités internationaux 94, 95 (Paris, 1934), and in Viktor Bruns, Fontes juris gentium, Ser. B, Sec. I, Vol. I, Pars I, pp. 742 et seq., Vol. II , Pars 2, p. 199 et seq.

40 See A. F . Frangulis, op. tit. 94, also quoted by Jules Basdevant, loc. tit. 641, note 2.

41 5 Hackworth, Digest of International Law 164 (Washington, 1943).

42 See A. F. Frangulis, op, cit. 95.

43 Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Dee. 17, 1958, Noon Ed.; cf. 40 Dept. of State Bulletin 4 (1959).

44 The Council of the League of Nations, in its Resolution of April 16, 1935, cited this when, contrary to the provisions of the Versailles Peace Treaty, Hitler reintroduced universal military training in Germany. League of Nations Official Journal, May, 1935, p. 551. See further declarations on contracts in the time of the League of Nations in Herbert W. Briggs, The Law of Nations 869 (2nd ed., London, 1953) ; Jules Basdevant, loc. cit. 641; Arnold Duncan McNair, The Law of Treaties 351 et seq. (Oxford, 1938).

45 Law of Treaties. Draft Convention, with Comment, prepared by the Eesearch in International Law of the Harvard Law School, 29 A.J.I.L. Supp. 977 (1935).

46 See for this A. F. Frangulis, ibid. 115 et seq.; John B. Whitton, loc. cit. 236 et seq.

47 Translated from La Fontaine, Pasicrisie Internationale 165 (Bern, 1902).

48 2 Moore, History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to Which the United States Has Been a Party 1807, 1849-1850 (Washington, 1898).

49 8 See the decision in James Brown Scott, Argument of the Honorable Elihu Root on behalf of the United States before the North Atlantic Coast Fisheries Arbitration Tribunal at The Hague 500 (Boston, 1912).

50 Publications of the Permanent Court of International Justice, Ser. B, No. 1, p. 19.

51 [1951] I.C.J. Bep. 21.

52 [1958] ibid. 72.

53 Ibid. 141.

54 18 Zeitschrift für ausländischeöffentliches Recht u. Völkerrecht 638 ff. (1958).

55 Ibid. 640, 648.