MEDIATE AND IMMEDIATE STATE RESPONSIBILITY 29 
status of the British Dominions and Colonies is implicitly reserved by the 
text.” 
However, it would not be possible to make any such reservation when 
preparing a formula for codification purposes. Some stipulations should be 
made to include federated States and other commonwealths which cannot 
properly be classed under the common type of confederacy. The formula 
set forth in Basis for Discussion No. 23 of the Preparatory Committee, pre- 
viously mentioned, could be construed to include: first, all protectorates, 
mandates and various types of subordinations among States; and second, all 
of the common types of confederacies, wherein a central Government under- 
takes the conduct of foreign relations. The deficiency of this formula lies 
in the fact that it confuses responsibility with representation, and that it does 
not depart from the idea of the control of the foreign relations. 
There is another defective formula,” and that is the Harvard School 
doctrine, which includes in the same category all the so-called political sub- 
divisions, and considers protectorates, colonies and dominions on the same 
footing, disregarding altogether their relations with the central Government 
under their Constitution, and takes into account merely the fact of whether 
they have or have not independent control of their foreign relations. 
The responsibility of one State for acts of another depends upon the 
tenor and scope of the covenants which have placed the one State under the 
more or less absolute control of the other. In the case of combined govern- 
ments, responsibility is based on the international character of the individual 
States. If they have such character, their responsibility is unquestionable. 
The fact as to whether or not each member of a commonwealth is invested 
with international character, depends upon the nature of the bonds which 
bind them together. And this bond cannot very well be defined a priori, as 
it is a subject for study in each concrete case. It is submitted that this is 
‘he only advisable conclusion. The practical difficulty, which, at the present 
moment seems insurmountable, is to establish the ways and means of making 
responsibility effective in the case of certain combined entities.