Since, in their relation of independence, states stand over against one another as particular wills, and the validity of treaties rests precisely on this, while the particular will of the whole is, with regard to its content, its welfare in general, this welfare is the supreme law governing its conduct towards others — all the more so since the Idea of the state is precisely that in it the opposition between right as abstract freedom and the particular content that fulfils it, namely welfare, is superseded, and the first recognition of states (§ 331) applies to them as concrete wholes.