ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to demonstrate that requiring formal expressions of a will to be bound through tacit consent was the first attempt to legalize unilateral acts. Westlake's comments on the Monroe Doctrine only make sense in the context of his understanding of the Great Powers of Europe—his yardstick for assessing the meaning of the Monroe Doctrine. As a result of his positive assessment of Great Power relations, Westlake argued that as part of its sovereign powers a state could voluntarily agree to anything "stopping short of reducing itself to a condition of semi-sovereignty". Garner argued that binding unilateral acts were a form of oral agreement based on tacit consent and he never mentioned unilateralism. In spite of these weaknesses Schwarzenberger confidently stated that unilateral acts had "legal effect." He based this obligation on the intention on the part of the state to be bound by their actions.
