Home > Journals > Michigan Law Review > MLR > Volume 3 > Issue 3 (1905)
Abstract
The United States receives diplomatic representatives from thirty-seven nations and accredits her representatives to them in return. Six of these on each side are of the highest rank, namely, "Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary," being those received from and accredited to the five great powers of Europe, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Russia, and to our sister Republic of Mexico. The rest are almost without exception "Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary," standing in the second rank of "Les Employés Diplomatiques," to use the term adopted at the Congress of Vienna (1815) where the relative rank was determined which attaches to these different offices. Chargés d'affaires constituted a third and lower class, and by the Congress of Aix-La-Chapelle (1818) an additional class ranking between the second and third above mentioned were recognized, namely, Ministers Resident, accredited to sovereigns. Since in theory of International Law all nations are equal one to another, the Congress of Vienna further provided that diplomats in each class should take rank "d'après la date de la notification officielle de leur arrivée," in other words, by seniority in service at the seat of government to which they are accredited. A diplomatic representative is commonly attended by a corps of secretaries, counselors, attaches, often civil, military and naval. He and they are often accompanied by families and servants, and this entire alien body claims, and, by the law of nations and of the United States, is entitled to great privileges and exemptions.
Recommended Citation
Charles N. Gregory,
Privileges of Ambassadors and Foreign Ministers,
3
Mich. L. Rev.
173
(1905).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol3/iss3/1