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/55



(1)The correspondence referred to related to naval bombardments of open coast towns. Professor Holland's letters are reprinted with notes on pp. 73–85 of Letters on War and Neutrality; see also on the same subject Studies in International Law by the same writer, p. 96. The correspondence and the subsequent history of the controversy are particularly interesting as showing the value of the work that jurists can do "to check wrong and point out what is right."

(2)All that can be adduced from the lack of the elements which Austin predicates which are found in national laws is that International Law is ill-defined in consequence of the absence of a legislature; and that its application may be dubious and not always effective owing to the absence of judicial authority and an ill-assured sanction; but this was the condition of national law in its early stages and only shows defective development (see F. Despagnet, Droit International Public, §§ 38, 39).

"The doctrines of international law have been elaborated by a course of legal reasoning; in international controversies precedents are used in a strictly legal manner: the opinions of writers are quoted and relied upon for the same purposes as those for which the opinions of writers