The Philosophy of Law: Public Right, § 54: Elements of the Right of Nations
The elements of the Right of Nations are as follow: —
1. STATES, viewed as NATIONS, in their external relations to one another—like lawless savages are naturally in a non-juridical condition;
2. This natural condition is a STATE OF WAR in which the Right of the stronger prevails; and although it may not in fact be always found as a state of actual war and incessant hostility, and although no real wrong is done to any one therein, yet the condition is wrong in itself in the highest degree, and the Nations which form States contiguous to each other are bound mutually to pass out of it;
3. An ALLIANCE OF NATIONS, in accordance with the idea of an original Social Contract, is necessary to protect each other against external aggression and attack, but not involving interference with their several internal difficulties and disputes;
4. This mutual connection by Alliance must dispense with a distinct Sovereign Tower, such as is set up in the Civil Constitution; it can only take the form of a FEDERATION, which as such may be revoked on any occasion, and must consequently be renewed from time to time.
This is therefore a Right which comes in as an accessory (in subsidium) of another original Right, in order to prevent the Nations from falling from Right, and lapsing into the state of actual war with each other. It thus issues in the idea of a Fcedus Ampliidyonum.