§ 43. The value of reprisals as a means of settling international differences is analogous to the value of retorsion. States will have recourse to reprisals for such international delinquencies as they think insufficiently important for a declaration of war, but too important to be entirely overlooked. That reprisals are rather a rough means for the settlement of differences, and that the institution of reprisals can give and has in the past given occasion to abuse in case of a difference between a powerful and a weak State, cannot be denied. On the other hand, as there is no Court and no central authority above the Sovereign States which could compel a delinquent State to give reparation, the institution of reprisals can scarcely be abolished. The influence in the future of the existence of a Permanent Court of Arbitration remains to be seen. If all the States would become parties to the Hague Convention for the peaceful adjustment of international differences, and if they would have recourse to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague in all cases of an alleged international delinquency which affects neither their national honour nor their vital interests and independence, acts of reprisal would almost disappear. IV PACIFIC BLOCKADE Hall, § 121--Lawrence, § 138--Westlake, II. pp. 11-18--Taylor, § 444--Moore, VII. § 1097--Bluntschli, §§ 506-507--Heffter, § 112--Bulmerincq in Holtzendorff, IV. pp. 116-127--Ullmann, § 162--Bonfils, Nos. 986-994--Despagnet, Nos. 496-498--Pradier-Fodéré, V. Nos. 2483-2489, VI. No. 2648--Rivier, II. § 60--Nys, III. pp. 91-94--Calvo, III. §§ 1832-1859--Fiore, II. No. 1231, and Code, Nos. 1404-1414--Martens, II. 105--Holland, _Studies_, pp. 151-167--Deane, _The Law of Blockade_ (1870), pp. 45-48--Fauchille, _Du blocus maritime_ (1882), pp. 37-67--Falcke, _Die Hauptperioden der sogenannten Friedensblockade_ (1891), and in the _Zeitschrift für Internationales Recht_, XIX. (1909), pp. 63-175--Barès, _Le blocus pacifique_ (1898)--Ducrocq, _Représailles en temps de paix_ (1901), pp. 58-174--Hogan, _Pacific Blockade_ (1908)--Söderquist, _Le Blocus Maritime_ (1908)--Staudacher, _Die Friedensblockade_ (1909)--Westlake in _The Law Quarterly Review_, XXV. (1909), pp. 13-23. [Sidenote: Development of practice of Pacific Blockade.]