Page:Handbook of maritime rights.djvu/44

30 inferior sense only. A fortiori when the agreement is only partial, the term "law of nations" is not applicable at all.

But when a law is both agreed upon by common consent, and is in accordance with the highest natural law, and is so regarded by the great authorities on International Law, then it becomes entitled to the full dignity of a law of nations in the largest acceptation of the term.

The maritime code of the Consolato del Mare constituted the maritime law of nations in this highest sense. Not only for centuries were the rules there laid down accepted, without dispute, by all maritime nations, large and small, but all the great international jurists, Grotius, Vattel, Bynkershöek, Zouch, Heineccius, Azuni, Lampredi, Puffendorf, and Kent, approved of these rules on the highest grounds of equity. I shall consider this point more at length hereafter.

When modifications began to be introduced into the practice consecrated by the