The United States has also encountered constitutional difficulties which hamper its participation in certain international administrative arrangements.104The significance of limitations of this kind is only beginning to be appreciated. They will become much more important in the future as further progress is made towards the creation of supernational authority. 101 Reinsch, Public International Unions, pp. 48, 65, note 1. CHAPTER VII. EXTERNAL LIMITATIONS UPON THE EQUALITY OF STATIS I THE NATURE OF EXTERNAL LIMITATIONS External limitations upon a state's international capacity are the result of certain relationships which it Such has with other members of the society of nations. limitations are created by general treaties, by certain special treaties creating relationships which obtain general recognition, and by the positive law of nations as proved by common usage. They operate to restrict the legal capacity of the state as an international person, rendering it incapable of acquiring certain international rights or of entering into certain international transactions. External limita (1) the state can tions have two important characteristics: not divest itself of the incapacity by its own act; (2) the state is placed in a position of legal incapacity with respect to the entire community of nations. Wherever limitations of this kind apply only to a single state or to a particular group of states, the state or group affected is in a condition of legal inequality with respect to other members of the society of nations. Inequalities of condition or status have always played an important part in inter |