Studies in the History of the Law of Nations

The Fundamental Law included the Salic Law, which governed the succession to the French throne, and also the territories of the French 1 Oeuvres: Les traitez des seigneuries (1613) (1701 ed.), p. 8. TERRITORIAL CLAIMS IN THE GROTIAN PERIOD 3 Crown. No French monarch had the competence to alienate French territory, any more than he had to alter the succession to the throne. The pressure of this concept upon contemporary thinking is illustrated by a letter which the Secretary of State, the Comte de Chavigny, wrote to the Baron de Pujol, Richelieu's secret agent in Spain, respecting a proposal of peace which involved the division of the Duchy of Savoy. He wrote: Le project que vous m'aves envoye est sy impraticable en deux articles, que je ne J'ay ose monstrer aS. Em. qui auroit tres mauvaise opinion de vous, si vous ne sc;:avies que les lois fondamentales du royaume, telles qu'est la loy Salique, sont du tout inviolables, en sorte qu'il n'est pas en Ia puissance du roy d'y apporter changement; et si S. Em. croyoit que vous pussies penser que le roy fust capable de consentir a ce que Madame sa soeur demeurast despouillee de ses Estats. II y a certaines choses qui, blessant le droit de Ia nature, blesseroient tellement !'imagination de tous les hommes, qu'il ne fault pointy penser.2 The early seventeenth ~ntury was an age of great legalism and historicity, and several important works were written in which an examination was made of the historical boundaries of France and of the legal status of territories not actually governed by the French Crown. Front Matter....Pages I-VIII Territorial Claims In The Grotian Period....Pages 1-15 The Acquisition of Territory in Australia and New Zealand....Pages 16-45 Breisach Revisited....Pages 46-51 Legality and Legitimacy: The Limits of the Duty of Obedience to the State....Pages 52-82 Natural Sanctions in International Law....Pages 83-89 An Essay in the History of the Principle of Self-Determination....Pages 90-99 Prolegomena to Utopian International Projects....Pages 100-110 The Use of Piracy in Malayan Waters....Pages 111-135 Early English Restrictions to Travel....Pages 136-165 The East India Company and the Crown 1773–1858....Pages 166-211 The Treaty of Limerick 1691....Pages 212-232