Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SECTION

The International Relations Section of the First
Independence Congress held its session at 9:30 a. m.
on February 23, 1930. The Chairman was the Honorable Mariano H. de Joya. The chairman called the
section to order and then addressed the members as
follows:
THE RECOGNITION OF NEW STATES AND THE POSSIBLE GUARANTEES TO PHILIPPINE
INDEPENDENCE
By the HON. MARIANO H. DE JOYA,
Formerly Judge of the Court of First Instance
It is well known that Public International Law and its true
importance have only been officially recognized by the Nations
of Europe since the year 1648 of the Congress of Westphalia,
the deliberations of which had for one of its principal results the
recognition of the principle of equality of the free and sovereign nations. In the said Congress, all the important powers
of Europe, with the exception of England, Russia, and Poland
were represented; and naturally they treated each other as
sovereign and independent countries forming among themselves
the Family of Nations, that since then has been exercising the
right to admit other nations in their group of the Great Powers,
which are in actuality, Great Britain, Germany, France and
Italy in Europe. Since there also exist other Great Powers
as the United States of America and the Empire of the Rising
Sun, these Great Powers personify the civilization and culture
of their respective hemispheres in particular and of the whole
civilized world in general; and, therefore, the said countries
are the more authorized exponents of the civilization and
progress of the world.
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