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for formal state action, afford a valuable source of information upon the attitude of states toward questions still formally unsettled. The simple expression to state agents in the way of instructions or information as to the position of the state on a given matter may, if continued and long accepted, give to the principle involved the force of international sanction. This was almost the case in the so-called Monroe Doctrine.1 In these papers may often be found an indication of the line which the principles of international law will subsequently follow and a general concensus by several states in diplomatic instructions may be considered strong evidence of what the law is on a given point.

1 In signing the Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, the representatives of the United States made the reservation that, "Nothing contained in this convention shall be so construed as to require the United States of America to depart from its traditional policy of not intruding upon, interfering with, or entangling itself in the political questions of policy or internal administration of any foreign state; nor shall anything contained in the said convention be construed to imply a relinquishment by the United States of America of its traditional attitude toward purely American questions."

PART II

PERSONS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

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(3) By admission of old states.

(4) By admission of former barbarous communities.

(5) Individual and collective recognition..

(c) Act of recognition.

(d) Premature recognition.

(e) Conditions.

(f) Recognition irrevocable.

(9) Consequences.

(1) The recognizing state.
(2) The recognized state.
(3) The parent state.

(4) Other states.

§ 19. Definition

A State is a sovereign political unity. It is of the relations of states that public international law mainly From the nature of its subject-matter it is a

treats.

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