In
other words, the injured state may use- not, indeed any means, but
yet- all those means that are permissible and in reasonable measure in
so far as they are in its power, in order to assert its right to
what is its own. But what then is an unjust enemy according to the
conceptions of the right of nations, when, as holds generally of the
state of nature, every state is judge in its own cause? It is one
whose publicly expressed will, whether in word or deed, betrays a
maxim which, if it were taken as a universal rule, would make a
state of peace among the nations impossible, and would necessarily
perpetuate the state of nature. Such is the violation of public
treaties, with regard to which it may be assumed that any such
violation concerns all nations by threatening their freedom, and
that they are thus summoned to unite against such a wrong and to
take away the power of committing it. But this does not include the
right to partition and appropriate the country, so as to make a
state as it were disappear from the earth; for this would be an
injustice to the people of that state, who cannot lose their
original right to unite into a commonwealth, and to adopt such a new
constitution as by its nature would be unfavourable to the inclination
for war.
Further, it may be said that the expression "an unjust enemy in
the state of nature" is pleonastic; for the state of nature is
itself a state of injustice.
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