mentioned in Article LXXIV, which, if they had been undertaken against one of the separate States of the Confederation, would be qualified as high treason, or treason against the country, the Common Upper Court of Appeal of the three free and Hanseatic towns, at Lubeck, is the competent deciding authority in first and last instance.
The special regulations as to the competency and the procedure of the Upper Court of Appeal are to be settled by way of Imperial legislation. Until the promulgation of an Imperial law, the competency of the courts in the separate States of the Confederation, and the provisions relative to the procedure of these courts, remain as they have hitherto been.
LXXVI. Differences between various States of the Confederation, in so far as they are not of a private legal nature and therefore to be decided by the competent judicial authorities, will, at the suit of one of the parties, be settled by the Council of the Confederation.
Constitutional differences in those States of the Confederation in whose constitution no authority for settling such disputes is provided, are to be amicably arranged by the Council of the Confederation at the suit of one of the parties, or if this should not succeed, they are to be settled by way of Imperial legislation.
LXXVII. If, in a State of the Confederation, the case of a refusal of justice should occur, and sufficient aid cannot be obtained by way of law, it is the duty of the Council of the Confederation to take cognizance of the complaints as to the refused or hindered administration of the law when proved according to the Constitution and existing laws of the respective State of the Confederation, and thereupon to cause the Government of the Confederate State which has given occasion for the complaint, to afford judicial aid.
XIV.—General Stipulations.
LXXVIII. Alterations in the Constitution take place by way of legislation. They are considered as rejected if they have 14 votes in the Council of the Confederation against them.
Those provisions of the Constitution of the Empire, by which certain rights are established for separate States of the Confederation in their relation to the community, can only be altered with the consent of the State of the Confederation entitled to those rights.
CONSULAR CONVENTION between Germany and the United States of America.—Signed at Berlin, December 11, 1871.
His Majesty the Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia, in the name of the German Empire and the President of the United States
