[950] Whereas Quabbe (p. 97, note 1), correctly denies the character of a real guarantee to the Declarations concerning the Mediterranean, he (p. 105) considers the Declarations concerning the North Sea and the Baltic real Guarantee Treaties.
Treaties of Protection.
§ 577. Different from guarantee treaties are treaties of protection. Whereas the former constitute the guarantee of a certain object to the guaranteed, treaties of protection are treaties by which strong States simply engage to protect weaker States without any guarantee whatever. A treaty of protection must, however, not be confounded with a treaty of protectorate.[951]
IV COMMERCIAL TREATIES
Taylor, 354—Moore, V. §§ 765-769—Melle in Holtzendorff, III. pp. 143-256—Liszt, § 28—Ullmann, § 145—Bonfils, No. 918—Despagnet, No. 462—Pradier-Fodéré, IV. Nos. 2005-2033—Mérignhac, II. pp. 688-693—Rivier, I. pp. 370-374—Fiore, II. Nos. 1065-1077, and Code, Nos. 848-854—Martens, II. §§ 52-55—Steck, "Versuch über Handels- und Schiffahrtsverträge" (1782)—Schraut, "System der Handelsverträge und der Meistbegünstigung" (1884)—Veillcovitch, "Les traités de commerce" (1892)—Nys, "Les origines du droit international" (1894), pp. 278-294—Herod, "Favoured Nation Treatment" (1901)—Calwer, "Die Meistbegünstigung in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-America" (1902)—Glier, "Die Meistbegünstigungs-Klausel" (1906)—Cavaretta, "La clausola della natiozione più favorita" (1906)—Barclay, "Problems of International Law and Diplomacy" (1907), pp. 137-142—Hornbeck, "The Most-Favoured Nation Clause" (1910), and in A.J. III. (1909), pp. 394-422, 619-647, and 798-827—Lehr in R.I. XXV. (1893), pp. 313-316—Visser in R.I. 2nd Ser. IV. (1902), pp. 66-87, 159-177, and 270-280—Lehr in R.I. 2nd Ser. XII. (1910), pp. 657-668—Shepheard in The Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation, New Series, III. (1901), pp. 231-237, and V. (1903), pp. 132-136—Oppenheim in The Law Quarterly Review, XXIV. (1908), pp. 328-334.
Commercial Treaties in General.
§ 578. Commercial treaties are treaties concerning the commerce and navigation of the contracting States and concerning the subjects of these States who are engaged in commerce and navigation. Incidentally, however, they also contain clauses concerning consuls and various other matters. They are concluded either for a limited or an unlimited number of years, and either for the whole territory of one or either party or only for a part of such territory—e.g., by Great Britain for the United Kingdom alone, or for Canada alone, and the like. All full-Sovereign States are competent to enter into commercial treaties, but it depends upon the special case whether half- and part-Sovereign States are likewise competent. Although competent to enter upon commercial treaties, a State may, by an international compact, be restricted in its freedom with regard to its commercial policy. Thus, according to articles 1 to 5 of the General Act of the Berlin Congo Conference of February 26, 1885, all the Powers which have possessions in the Congo district must grant complete freedom of commerce to all nations. Again, to give another example, France and Germany are by article 11 of the Peace of Frankfort of May 10, 1871, compelled to grant one another most-favoured-nation treatment in their commercial relations, in so far as favours which they grant to Great Britain, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, and Russia are concerned.
The details of commercial treaties are for the most part purely technical and are, therefore, outside the scope of a general treatise on International Law. There are, however, two points of great importance which require discussion—namely, the meaning of coasting trade and of the most-favoured-nation clause.
Meaning of Coasting Trade in Commercial Treaties.