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Show In fact controversies respecting international rivers are set- tled as matters of policy by treaty. A clear definition of the rules of international law applied by the United States- with respect to international rivers5 will be found in the Reamed opinion of Attorney General Judson Harmon respecting the claims of the Republic of Mexico to a preferred right, by prior appropriation, to the use of the waters of the Rio Grande River, This opinion., ws believe, was the first American announcement of the principles of international law governing the consumption of the waters of an international river by an upper nation for purposes of irrigation and other uses imperative to the self-preservation and general welfare of the nation and its citizens^ irres- pective of1 like consumptive uses previously made by the lower nations and which, in turn- are injured or destroyed by reason of the later consumptive uses by the nation of origin; and was the first announcement of the principle of international law that a claim of international servitude upon a stream by a lower nation upon the principle of a preferred right to the use of the water by a prior appropriation, need not be respected by the upper na« tion but; that the upper nation may develop its territory and make all need- ful uses of the waters of the streams rising wholly within its-territory irrespective of the claims or demands of lower nations^ and free from in- ternational servitude upon the territory of the upper nation in behalf of the lower and that the upper nation need, yield no part of the water of the waters of the stream common to both until such time as the upper na- tion shall see fit to make soiiie concession by treaty as a matter of policy and not of international law, In view of the fact that this opinion has been followed by our government in construing our obligations respecting our international rivers, it may be taken as the expression of the settled doctrine of the United States. 3y reason of its important bearing upon interstate as well as in- ternational law, we make liberal quotation: "There have been disputes about rights of navigation of inter- national rivers, but they have been settled by treaty, (For a list of such treaties see Heffter Droit Int.. Appendix VIII*) The sub- ject is fully discussed by Hall (into Law. sec, 39) > wno denied that the people on the upper part of a navigable river have a natural right to pass over it through foreign territory to its mouth. But If such right be conceded,, no aid is afforded for the present ixs>- quiry, because for navigation, being common, would not curtail "use by the propietary country, while in the case now presented, ¦there not being enough water for' irrigation in both countries, the question is, which shall yield to the other., "It is stabed by some authors that an obligation rests upon every country to receive streams which naturally flow into it from other eountrues, and they refer to this as a natural international servitude, (Deffter Droit Into, Sec l\3v 1 Philemoew Int. Law, p» 303") Others deny the existence of all international servitudes, apart from agreement in some form," (Letters of Grotius quoted, 2 Herb., p. 106; Kluber Droit des Gens Moderne, sec 139? Bluntschli Droit Int. Cod.j Woolsey's Int. Lav/, sec 58; 1 Calvo Droit Int., sec 556.) |