n districts occupied by an enemy the
indispensable protection of law. There may be members of the
Institut who do not give up the hope that some day, thanks to
the progress of civilisation, humanity will succeed in
substituting an organised international justice for the wars
which now-a-days take place between sovereign States. But the
body of the Institut, as a whole, well knows that that hope
has no chance of being realised in our time, and limits its
action in this matter to two principal objects, the attainment
of which is possible:--

"1. To open and facilitate the settlement of trifling disputes
between nations by judicial methods, war being unquestionably
a method out of all proportion in such cases.

"2. To aid in elucidating and strengthening legal order even
in time of war.

"I acknowledge unreservedly that the customs of warfare have
improved since the establishment of standing armies, a
circumstance which has rendered possible a stricter
discipline, and has necessitated a greater care for the
provisionment of troops. I also acknowledge unreservedly that
the chief credit for this improvement is due to military
commanders. Brutal and barbarous pillage was prohibited by
generals before jurists were convinced of its illegality. If
in our own day a law recognised by the civilised world
forbids, in a general way, the soldier to make booty in
warfare on land, we have here a great advance in civilisation,
and the jurists have had their share in bringing it about.
Since compulsory service has turned standing armies into
national armies, war has also become national. Laws of war are
consequently more than ever important and necessary, since, in
the differences of culture and opinion which prevail between
individuals and classes, law is almost the only moral power
the force of which is acknowledged by all, and which binds all
together under common rules. This pleasing and cheering
circumstance is one which constantly meets us in the Institut
de Droit International. We see a general legal persuasion ever
in process of more and more distinct formation uniting all
civilised peoples. Men of nations readily disunited and
opposed--Germans and French, English and Russians, Spaniards
and Dutc