tution to
do business.[151] Conversely, the President may, if dissatisfied with
amendments which have been affixed by the Senate to a proposed treaty or
with the conditions stipulated by it to ratification, decide to abandon
the negotiation, which he is entirely free to do.[152]

TREATIES AS LAW OF THE LAND

Treaty commitments of the United States are of two kinds. In the
language of Chief Justice Marshall in 1829; "A treaty is, in its nature,
a contract between two nations, not a legislative act. It does not
generally effect, of itself, the object to be accomplished; especially,
so far as its operation is infraterritorial; but is carried into
execution by the sovereign power of the respective parties to the
instrument. In the United States, a different principle is established.
Our constitution declares a treaty to be the law of the land. It is,
consequently, to be regarded in courts of justice as equivalent to an
act of the legislature, whenever it operates of itself, without the aid
of any legislative provision. But when the terms of the stipulation
import a contract--when either of the parties engages to perform a
particular act, the treaty addresses itself to the political, not the
judicial department; and the legislature must execute the contract,
before it can become a rule for the Court."[153] To the same effect, but
more accurate, is Justice Miller's language for the Court a half century
later, in Head Money Cases: "A treaty is primarily a compact between
independent nations. It depends for the enforcement of its provisions on
the interest and the honor of the governments which are parties to it.
* * * But a treaty may also contain provisions which confer certain
rights upon the citizens or subjects of one of the nations residing in
the territorial limits of the other, which partake of the nature of
municipal law, and which are capable of enforcement as between private
parties in the courts of the country."[154]

Origin of the Conception

How did this distinctive feature of the Constitution come about, by
virtue of which the treaty-making authority is enabled to stamp upon its
promises the quality of municipal law, thereby rendering them
"self-executory," as it is said; in other words, enforceable by the
courts? The answer is that article VI, paragraph 2 was, at its
inception, an outgrowth of a major weakness of the Articles of
Confederation. Although the Articles entrusted the treaty-making power
to C