...a violation of the law of nations," citing in this respect Vattel. "Upon the same principle" -to qoute from the argument as reported--"that the infringement of a statute is an indictable offence, though the mode of punishment is not pointed out in the act itself, an offence against the law of nations, while they compose a part of the law of the land, must necessarily be indictable."
Chief Justice McKean, a man of large political and judicial experience and himself a signer of the Declaration of Independence, stated the trial to be a case of "first impression in the United States"; that it was to be determinded "on the principles of the law of nations, which form a part of the municipal law of Pennsylvania."