generation.

[Sidenote: The task of the future.]

12. If in the following pages I undertake the discussion of these three
weighty matters, it is entirely foreign to my purpose to peer into the
future with the eyes of prophecy or to busy my fancy with building
castles in the air. What I propose is only to place in clear light the
problems which are now coming into view and to furnish some indications
which may contribute to their successful solution. If it is only to
happy accident that we owe the assembling of the Peace Conferences, and
likewise the issues of the same, we must all the more attempt in the
future to assure success by dint of careful deliberation, systematic
preparation, and a purposeful consideration of the problems which press
for attention. And the science of international law must bethink itself
and devote itself, with a more exact method than has hitherto been
usual, to the elaboration of the results of past and future Conferences
and to the incorporation of them in its system.

CHAPTER I

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SOCIETY OF STATES

[Sidenote: Is the law of nations an anarchic law?]

13. International legislation and administration presuppose the
existence of law and order within the society of states, and this latter
topic must therefore be treated before the former. International law has
been called 'anarchic law' on the ground that hitherto the society of
states has not been organized and that it must ever remain unorganized
on account of the complete sovereignty of its members. It seems to me
that this position is untenable. The idea of anarchy forms a contrast to
that of law. Law can as little be anarchic as anarchy can be an
institute of law. The conception of the one excludes the other. He who
cannot conceive of law apart from a superior power enforcing it on its
subjects, may perhaps call the international society of states anarchic,
but then he will also have to contest the existence of an international
law, and, logically, he should also deny the possibility of the
existence of an international society.

[Sidenote: All law is order.]

14. He, however, who identifies law and order, and who, whenever he
finds in any society rules making their appearance which are conceived
as compulsory for the conduct of its members, speaks of law--in contrast
to morality, the observance of which is left to the conscience of the
members--will also be able to speak of law in a society where