“Nations, being sovereign or independent of each other, treat
together on a footing of complete equality. The most feeble
state has the same political rights as the strongest. In other
terms, each state exercises in their plenitude the rights which
result from its political existence and from its participation
in international association.”[69]
The latest English writers testify likewise. Here are the words of
Phillimore:--
“The natural equality of states is the necessary companion
of their independence,--that primitive cardinal right upon
which the science of International Law is mainly built.… They
are entitled, in their intercourse with other states, to all
the rights incident to a natural equality. No other state is
entitled to encroach upon this equality by arrogating to itself
peculiar privileges or prerogatives as to the manner of their
mutual intercourse.”[70]