Book excerpt: Excerpt from An Incident of War Order of the Kaiser There is no such thing as international law, as that term is frequently used. That may seem a hard saying, but it is a fact which becomes apparent to belligerents and neutrals when war is in progress. Nothing contributes more powerfully to the recognition of that truth than the varying claims and objections which are raised whenever a blockade is declared. The late Lord Salisbury, in a speech on the proposal to establish an International Court of Arbitration, he being at the time Prime Minister of England, remarked that international law has no existence in the sense in which the term 'law is usually understood. It depends generally upon the, prejudices of writers of textbooks. It can be enforced by no tribunal, and, therefore, to apply to it the phrase 'law, ' is to some extent misleading. Objections have also been raised to the word international. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.