CHAPTER X.
ON DERIVATIVE TITLE.
Title by Conquest.—Title by Convention.—Vattel—Martens.—Wheaton.—The Practice of Nations.—United States.—Great Britain.—Kent’s Commentaries.—Mixed Conventions.—The Fisheries of Newfoundland.—Treaty of Paris.—Distinction between Rights and Liberties.—Permanent Servitude.—Negotiations in 1818.—Mr. Adams’ Argument.—Lord Bathurst’s Letter.—Mr. Adams’ Reply.—Convention of 1818.
Derivative title may result from involuntary or voluntary cession (traditio.) Involuntary cession takes place when a nation vanquished in war abandons its territory to the conqueror who has seized it. Voluntary cession, on the other hand, is marked by some compact or convention; its object may be either to prevent a war, or to cement a peace. The repeated occurrence of such voluntary cessions in later times, has led the chief writers on international law to make a distinction accordingly between transitory conventions, which mark such cessions, and treaties properly so called.
Vattel, b. xi., ch. xii., § 153, lays it down that,—
“The compacts which have temporary matters for their object are called agreements, conventions, and pactions. They are accomplished by one single act, and not by repeated acts. These compacts are perfected in their execution once for all; treaties receive a successive execution, whose duration equals that of the treaty.”
Martens, § 58, to the same effect observes,—
“Les traités de cession, de limites, d’échange, et ceux même qui constituent une servitude de droit public, ont la nature des conventions transitoires; les traités d’amitié, de commerce, de navigation, les alliances égales et inégales, ont celle des traités proprement dits (fædera.)
“Les conventions transitoires sont perpétuelles par la nature de la chose.” (§ 1.)