NATIONS

1 definition found

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  NATIONS. Nations or states are independent bodies politic; societies of men 
  united together for the purpose of promoting their mutual safety and 
  advantage by the joint efforts of their combined strength. 
       2. But every combination of men who govern themselves, independently of 
  all others, will not be considered a nation; a body of pirates, for example, 
  who govern themselves, are not a nation. To constitute a nation another 


  ingredient is required. The body thus formed must respect other nations in 
  general, and each of their members in particular. Such a society has her 
  affairs and her interests; she deliberates and takes resolutions in common; 
  thus becoming a moral person who possesses an understanding and will 
  peculiar to herself, and is susceptible of obligations and rights. Vattel, 
  Prelim. Sec. 1, 2; 5 Pet. S. C. R. 52. 
       3. It belongs to the government to declare whether they will consider a 
  colony which has thrown off the yoke of the mother country as an independent 
  state; and until the government have decided on the question, courts of 
  justice are bound to consider the ancient state of things as remaining 
  unchanged. 1 Johns. Ch. R. 543; 13 John. 141, 561; see 5 Pet. S. C. R. 1; 1 
  Kent, Com 21; and Body Politic; State.