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/56

 are invoked under a system of municipal law; the conduct of states is attacked, defended, and judged within the range of international law by reference to legal considera- tions alone; and finally, it is recognised that there is an international morality distinct from law, violation of which gives no formal ground of complaint, however odious the action of the ill-doer may be. It may fairly be doubted whether a description of law is adequate which fails to admit a body of rules as being substantially legal, when they have received legal shape, and are regarded as having the force of law by the persons whose conduct they are intended to guide." W. E. Hall, International Law, p. 14 (5th edition).

"And the different states not only recognise the rules of international law as legally binding in innumerable treaties and emphasise every day the fact that there is a law between themselves. They moreover recognise this law by their municipal laws ordering their officials, their civil and criminal courts, and their subjects to take up such an attitude as is in conformity with the duties imposed upon their sovereignty by the law of nations." L. Oppenheim, International Law, Vol. 1. p. 14.

(3) W. E. Hall, op. cit. p. 1.

(4) See Article by the Hon. Elihu Root on "The sanction of international law." American Journal of International Law, Vol. II. pp. 451-457.

(5) The Right Hon. Sir Edward Grey, M.P., Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in a speech at Wooler on the 7th October 1908, is reported in the Times to have spoken as follows on the attitude of Great Britain on the occasion of the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria: