the legislature the benefit of judicial advice at the opening of
each session as to what laws it might be desirable to enact. The
judges of her trial courts are annually to report to those of her
Supreme Court such defects and omissions in the laws as their
knowledge and experience may suggest, and the latter, after
considering these suggestions, are then, within the next five
months, to report to the Governor such defects and omissions,
both in the Constitution and in the laws, as they may find to
exist.

The duty of the judiciary, in the course of lawsuits, to compare
a statute, the validity of which is called in question, with the
Constitution, and by the decision indirectly to affect
legislation, is treated of elsewhere.[Footnote: Chap. VII.]

The courts of the United States, in controversies involving
matters affecting the foreign relations of the general
government, acknowledge in a certain degree a dependence upon the
executive department. If they have a treaty to construe, any
construction of it as to the point in question already given by
the State Department will be followed, unless plainly wrong. If
it becomes material to determine whether a certain country is
subject to a certain power, and the President of the United
States has dealt with that question (as by recognizing or
refusing to recognize a minister accredited to the United
States), his action will be accepted as conclusive. His
proceedings would have like weight if taken within the limits of
his authority with respect to the government of one of the United
States.[Footnote: Luther _v._ Borden, 7 Howard's Reports,
1.]