I NEGOTIATION
Heffter, §§ 234-239—Geffcken in Holtzendorff, III. pp. 668-676—Liszt, § 20—Ullmann, § 71—Bonfils, Nos. 792-795—Pradier-Fodéré, III. Nos. 1354-1362—Rivier, II. § 45—Calvo, III. §§ 1316-1320, 1670-1673.
Conception of Negotiation.
§ 477. International negotiation is the term for such intercourse between two or more States as is initiated and directed for the purpose of effecting an understanding between them on matters of interest. Since civilised States form a body interknitted through their interests, such negotiation is in some shape or other constantly going on. No State of any importance can abstain from it in practice. There are many other international transactions,[830] but negotiation is by far the most important of them. And it must be emphasised that negotiation as a means of amicably settling conflicts between two or more States is only a particular kind of negotiation, although it will be specially discussed in another part of this work.[831]
[830] See below, §§ [486]-490.
[831] See below, [vol. II. §§ 4]-6.
Parties to Negotiation.
§ 478. International negotiations can be conducted by all such States as have a standing within the Family of Nations. Full-Sovereign States are, therefore, the regular subjects of international negotiation. But it would be wrong to maintain that half- and part-Sovereign States can never be parties to international negotiations. For they can indeed conduct negotiations on those points concerning which they have a standing within the Family of Nations. Thus, for instance, while Bulgaria was a half-Sovereign State, she was nevertheless able to negotiate on several matters with foreign States independently of Turkey.[832] But so-called colonial States, as the Dominion of Canada, can never be parties to international negotiations; any necessary negotiation for a colonial State must be conducted by the mother-State to which it internationally belongs.[833]
[833] The demand on the part of many influential Canadian politicians, expressed after the verdict of the Arbitration Court in the Alaska Boundary dispute, that Canada should have the power of making treaties independently of Great Britain, necessarily includes the demand to become in some respects a Sovereign State.