In 1839, African captives seized control of the Amistad from their Spanish slaveholders and their ship was taken to a port in Connecticut. The Supreme Court would decide whether they would be returned to the Spanish or freed. Learn what happened in the Amistad case in this episode of 60-Second Civics.

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On today's podcast, we learn that there are severe limitations to the effectiveness of international law.

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International law has been traditionally thought of as applying to relationships between nations, but individuals have at least some status under international law.

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International law can be defined as the rules that govern how nations interact with each other.

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The president has a great deal of constitutional authority over diplomacy, including the authority to receive ambassadors, thereby establishing diplomatic relations.

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The debate over the president's war powers goes back to Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton and the Barbary Wars, which began in 1801.

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Treaties made by the federal government are the supreme law of the land. As such, they limit the powers of states.

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Two-thirds of the Senate must approve any treaty negotiated by the president. But originally, the Framers of the Constitution assumed that treaty-making power would reside in the Senate, not the executive.

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Treaty-making is a shared power. Treaties are negotiated by the president with the assistance of the State Department. The Senate has the power to ratify treaties, and funds for their implementation are provided by Congress.

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Letters of marque and reprisal were historically used by Congress to allow private raids on merchant ships of enemy nations.

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