and from
mouth to mouth, and must always be available whenever wanted in order to
justify some assertion which contradicts the recognized rules of
warfare. The kernel of truth in Rousseau's doctrine is this, that while
the soldier is put in an actively hostile position, the peaceable
subject of a belligerent is put in a passively hostile position; but
the doctrine is absolutely misunderstood, although the distinction which
it asserts is quite commonly recognized. And so here also it must be
repeated that, if we are to arrive at clearness, if baseless claims are
not to appear under the cover of law, the phrase 'War is only a relation
between the belligerent states and their contending forces' must
disappear, as being misleading, from the science of international law.

[Sidenote: The science of international law must become international.]

73. It is, finally, a pressing necessity that the science of
international law should become international. The science of
international law is essentially a branch of the science of law, and it
can only thrive if this dependence be not suppressed. Now the science of
law must, of necessity, be a national one, even if at the same time it
employs the comparative method. On this ground the science of
international law, forming always a part of a national science of law,
must in this sense be national. When, despite this, I insist that it
must become international, what I have before my eyes is merely the
requirement that it should not limit itself to the employment of
national literature and the jurisprudence of national courts, and that
it must make itself acquainted with foreign juristic methods.

[Sidenote: Necessary to consult foreign literature on international
law.]

74. There is as yet scarcely any systematic reference to foreign
literature on international law. Monographs may possibly cite the old
editions of some wellnigh obsolete text-books, but, with individual
laudable exceptions, there is scarcely any suggestion of the real
utilization of foreign literature. This defect is, admittedly, to be
attributed not so much to writers themselves as to the fact that foreign
literature is for the most part inaccessible to them. There ought to be
in every state at least _one_ library which devotes especial attention
to international law, and makes, on a well-elaborated plan, a judicious
collection of foreign literature on the subject, particularly foreign
periodicals.

[Sideno