CHAPTER XVIII. GENERAL PRINCIPLES WITH REGARD TO THE INTERCOURSE. $128. In Parts II and III we have successively treated the nature and extent of the individual rights and obligations of States and the modifications of these rights and obligations, the origin of which was described in Part I. We must now proceed to follow up the development of these rights and obligations in their bearings on the various conditions of mutual intercourse, which of course present different aspects in time of peace, that is in the normal state of intercourse, and in the state of war. These will be treated, respectively, in the present Part IV and in the succeeding Part V of this work, while Part VI, which concludes the work, will contain the rules with regard to the legal manifestation of a return to the normal state of peace, called the treaty of peace. principles of intercourse. The basis of all moral and legal intercourse General in the case of Nations as well as individuals, is international good faith, i.e., the respect which civilized men owe to the given word of promise. All mutual agreements, from which obligations result, must fulfil the following conditions, viz.: 1°., that the contracting parties possess the moral and legal capacity to treat; 2°., that the consentment be freely and voluntarily given; 3°., that the agreement be in harmony with the Moral Law of Nature, i.e., in conformity with the Spirit of Law |