Page:The binding force of international law; inaugural lecture in international law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Session 1910-11 (IA bindingforceofin00higgrich).pdf/13



more than twenty years ago, during the course of a correspondence in the Times, one of the writers remarked that International Law was "all nonsense" and that "when we are at war with an enemy he will do his best to injure us; he will do so in what way he thinks proper, all treaties and so-called International Law notwithstanding." The same correspondence also brought into prominence the fact that some of the writers had very little respect for "old-fashioned treaties, protocols and other diplomatic documents." Some few years previous to this correspondence a French Admiral in an Article in the Revue des deux Mondes had spoken of "cette monstrueuse association de mots : les droits de la guerre." Clausewitz in his monumental work on war also wrote of "self-imposed restrictions, almost H.