ABSTRACT
Every social union restrains or qualifies the independence of the associated members. Every community which is organized as a political entity; which possesses a defined territory; and which manages its own affairs apart from any external control regularly exercised over it by any other particular community, is a state. The true object of a state, as of every other social union, is the enlargement of the freedom of the individual members or their power of realizing their respective wills. No social organism can be evolved without the development of inequalities as between the individual members. The influence of International Law can be established firmly only by developing the social relations of states. The theory of the equality of all states rests upon no better foundation either of fact or principle than that of their independence. The theories of the independence and equality of all states are inconsistent with the principles of the evolution of a world-society.
