International law; Natural law; War (International law)
But there are various ways of forming these agreements. If a man
borrows money to employ his skill upon in trading for himself, whether
he gains or loses the whole, he is answerable to the owner for the
principal. But where a man unites his labor to the capital of another
in partnership, there he becomes a partner in the principal, to a share
of which he is entitled. In the first of these cases the principal is
not compared as a balance against the labor, but it is lent upon terms
proportioned to the risk of losing it, or the probable gains to be
derived from it. In the other case, the price of labour is weighed, as
it were, against the money, and the party who bestows it, is entitled
to an equivalent share in the capital.
What has been said of labour may be applied to voyages, and all
other hazardous undertakings. For it is contrary to the very nature
of partnerships for any one to share in the gain, and to be exempt
from the losses. Yet it may be so settled without any degree of
injustice. For there may be a mixed contract arising out of a contract
of insurance in which due equality may be preserved, by allowing the
person, who has taken upon himself the losses, to receive a greater
share of the gain than he would otherwise have done. But it is a thing
quite inadmissible that any one should be responsible for the losses
without partaking of the gains; for a communion of interests is so
natural to society that it cannot subsist without it.
What has been said by writers on the civil law, that the shares are
understood to be equal where they are not expressly named, is true
where equal quotas have been contributed. But in a GENERAL partnership
the shares are not to be measured by what may arise from this or that
article, but from the probable profits of the whole.
XXIV. In naval associations the common motive of utility is
self-defence against pirates: though they may sometimes be formed from
less worthy motives. In computing the losses to be sustained by each,
it is usual to estimate the number of men, the number of ships, and the
quantity of merchandise protected. And what has hitherto been said will
be found conformable to natural justice.
XXV. Nor does the voluntary[36] law of nations appear to make any
alteration here. However, there is one exception, which is, that where
equal terms have been agreed upon, if no fraud has been used, nor any
necessary information withheld, they shall be considered as equal in
an external[37] point of view. So that no action can be maintained
in a court for such inequality. Which was the case in the civil law
before Dioclesian's constitution. So among those, who are bound by the
law of nations alone, there can be no redress or constraint on such
account.[38]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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