Deposed and Abdi

Mon

archs.

Such knowledge may be possessed in the case of a monarch travelling incognito, and then he enjoys the same privileges as if travelling not incognito. The only difference is that many ceremonial observances, which are due to a monarch, are not rendered to him when travelling incognito. But the case may happen that a monarch is travelling in a foreign country incognito without the Government of the latter having the slightest knowledge thereof. He cannot then, of course, be treated otherwise than as any other foreign individual; but he can at any time make known his real character, and assume the privileges 1 due to him. Thus the late King William of Holland, when travelling incognito in Switzerland in 1873, was condemned to a fine for some slight contravention, but the sentence was not carried out, as he gave up his incognito.2

1

§ 351. All privileges mentioned must be granted to cated a monarch only as long as he is really the head of a State. As soon as he is deposed or has abdicated, he is no longer a sovereign. Therefore in 1870 and 1872 the French courts permitted, because she was deposed, civil actions against Queen Isabella of Spain, then living in Paris, for money due to the plaintiffs. Nothing, of course, prevents the Municipal Law of a State from granting the same privileges to a foreign deposed or abdicated monarch as to a foreign sovereign, but the Law of Nations does not exact any such courtesy.

Regents.

§ 352. All privileges due to a monarch are also due to a regent, at home or abroad, whilst he governs on behalf of an infant, or of a king who is, through illness, incapable of exercising his powers. And it matters not whether the regent is a member of the king's family and a prince of royal blood, or not.

1 See Mighell v. Sultan of Johore,

[1894] 1 Q.B. 149.

* See Lawrence, Commentaire sur

Wheaton, iii. p. 428; Pradier-Fodéré, iii. No. 1582, and R.I., v. (1873), p. 246.

in the

of Foreign

§ 353. When a monarch accepts any office in a foreign Monarchs State, when, for instance, he serves in a foreign army, Service or as did formerly many monarchs of the small German Subjects States, he submits to such State as far as the duties of Powers. the office are concerned, and his home State cannot claim any privileges for him that otherwise would be due to him.

When a monarch is at the same time a subject of another State, a distinction must be made between his acts as a sovereign, on the one hand, and his acts as a subject, on the other. For the latter, the State whose subject he is has jurisdiction over him, but not for the former. Thus, in 1837, the Duke of Cumberland became King of Hanover, but at the same time he was by hereditary title an English peer and therefore an English subject. And in 1844, in the case of Duke of Brunswick v. King of Hanover, the Master of the Rolls held that the King of Hanover was liable to be sued in the courts of England in respect of any acts done by him as an English subject.

III

PRESIDENTS OF REPUBLICS

Bluntschli, § 134-Stoerk in Holtzendorff, ii. p. 661-Ullmann, § 42-Rivier, i. § 33-Martens, i. § 80-Walther, Das Staatshaupt in den Republiken (1907), pp. 190-204-Praag, No. 192–Satow, Diplomatic Practice, i. $ 9.

dents not

§ 354. In contradistinction to monarchies, in republics Presithe people itself, and not a single individual, appears Soveas the representative of the sovereignty of the State, reigns. and, accordingly, the people styles itself the sovereign of the State. And it will be remembered that the head

16 Beav. 1; 2 H.L.C. 1; see also Phillimore, ii. § 109.

Position of Presi

of a republic may consist of a body of individuals, such as the Bundesrath in Switzerland. But in case the head is a president, as in France and the United States of America, the president represents the State, at any rate in the totality of its international relations. He is, however, not a sovereign, but a citizen, and a subject of the very State of which, as president, he is head.

§ 355. Consequently, his position at home and abroad dents in cannot be compared with that of monarchs, and Intergeneral. national Law does not empower his home State to claim for him the same, but only similar, consideration as that due to a monarch. Neither at home nor abroad, therefore, does a president of a republic appear as a peer of monarchs. Whereas all monarchs are in the style of the court phraseology considered as though they were members of the same family, and therefore address each other in letters as my brother,' a president of a republic is usually addressed in letters from monarchs as my friend.' His home State can certainly claim at home and abroad such honours for him as are due to its dignity, but no such honours as must be granted to a sovereign monarch.

Position of Presidents

§ 356. As to the position of a president when abroad, writers on the Law of Nations do not agree. Some1 Abroad. maintain that, since a president is not a sovereign, his

home State can never claim for him the same privileges as for a monarch, and especially that of exterritoriality. Others 2 make a distinction whether a president is staying abroad in his official capacity as head of a State, or for his private purposes, and they maintain that his home State could only in the first case claim exterritoriality for him. Others again will not admit any difference in the position of a president abroad from that of

1 Ullmann, § 42; Rivier, i. p. 423; Stoerk in Holtzendorff, ii. p. 658.

2 Martens, i. § 80; Bluntschli, § 134; Despagnet, No. 254; Hall,

§ 97.

3

Bonfils, No. 632; Nys, ii. p. 338; Mérignhac, ii. p. 298; Liszt, § 13; Walther, op. cit., p. 195.

a monarch abroad. With regard to ceremonial honours due to a president when abroad on official business, when the President of the United States visited England in December 1918, he received such ceremonial honours as are due to a monarch. As regards exterritoriality, I believe that future contingencies will create the practice on the part of the States of granting this privilege to presidents and members of their suite as in the case of monarchs. I cannot see that there is any danger in such a grant. And nobody can deny that, if exterritoriality is not granted, all kinds of friction and even conflicts might arise. Although not sovereigns, presidents of republics fill, for the time being, a sublime office, and the grant of exterritoriality to them is a tribute paid to the dignity of the States they represent.

IV

FOREIGN OFFICES

Heffter, § 201-Geffcken in Holtzendorff, iii. p. 668-Ullmann, § 43—Rivier, i. § 34--Bonfils, Nos. 648-651-Nys, ii. pp. 383-387-Hershey, No. 257 -Satow, Diplomatic Practice, i. §§ 13-20.

of the

for

§ 357. As a rule nowadays no head of a State, be he Position a monarch or a president, negotiates directly, and in Secretary person, with a foreign Power, although this happens Foreign occasionally. The necessary negotiations are regularly Affairs. conducted by the Foreign Office, an office which, since the Westphalian Peace, has been in existence in every civilised State. The chief of this office, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who is a Cabinet minister, directs the foreign affairs of the State in the name of the head and with his consent; he is the middleman between the head of the State and other States. And although many a head of a State in fact directs all the foreign affairs

himself, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs is neverthe less the person through whose hands all transactions must pass. Now, as regards the position of such Foreign Secretary at home, it is the Municipal Law of a State which regulates this. But International Law defines his position regarding international intercourse with other States. He is the chief over all the ambassadors of the State, over its consuls, and over its other agents in matters international. It is he who, either in person, or through the envoys of his State, approaches foreign States for the purpose of negotiating matters international. And, again, it is he whom foreign States, through their Foreign Secretaries or their envoys, approach for the like purpose. He is present when ministers hand in their credentials to the head of the State. All documents of importance regarding foreign matters are signed by him or his substitute, the UnderSecretary for Foreign Affairs. It is, therefore, usual to notify the appointment of a new Foreign Secretary of a State to such foreign States as are represented within its boundaries by diplomatic envoys; the new Foreign Secretary himself makes this notification.