Triquet v Bath (Incorporation of international law)
Aug 12, 2026
In this international law case from the 18th century, the court found that (in this instance, and long ago) international law was automatically incorporated into the laws of England. Nowadays, in both the UK and Australia, there would need to be domestic legislation to implement international law.
AI GeneratedMay contain errors
Video Summary
AI GeneratedThis video explains the two primary methods by which international law is integrated into national legal systems: implementation and incorporation. Using the historical case of Triquet v. Bath, it illustrates how the incorporation approach once allowed international law to be automatically binding in domestic courts, specifically regarding diplomatic immunity.
There are two ways in which international law can become part of the law of an individual nation.
On one approach, international law has no effect until there is some domestic law which implements the international law locally.
The other approach, known as the incorporation approach,
says that the law of nations, or international law, is automatically part of the domestic national law.
Nowadays, both the United Kingdom and Australia take the former approach.
International law does not become binding domestically until it is implemented by local legislation.
However, this was not always the case.
In Triquet and Bath, Bath had been a commercial trader, but not a very successful one,
and he found himself with debts that he could not repay.
It was likely that he would have been sued for the debt, been bankrupted, and potentially been jailed.
Instead, Bath found a position as secretary to Count Haslang, a diplomat from Bavaria in what is now Germany,
who held a position in London.
As a result, Bath claimed diplomatic immunity and claimed that his debtors could not pursue him for the debt.
The difficulty was that the circumstances of his becoming a domestic servant of Count Haslang were very suspicious.
As the plaintiff's lawyers said, Bath is an officer on half pay at 15 shillings per day,
and therefore unlikely to undertake a bona fide service for £30 per annum wages and board wages.
No wages have ever been paid.
And Count Haslang, a minister of very humble rank, has more domestics registered than the ambassadors of the most potent crowns in Europe.
Suspicious though it may appear, the court made it clear that suspicion was not enough.
The court found that in the circumstances, international law was binding in England,
and that international law required that a domestic servant be granted immunity from prosecution.
As a result, Bath was off the hook.
The court said,
From this case we learn that countries can simply incorporate the law of nations into their domestic laws,
and if they do, the court will be bound to apply those international laws.