legal Definition of Ware v. Hylton
3 U.S. 199 (1796), upheld the primacy of U.S. treaties over state statutes. It invalidated a Virginia law allowing Virginia residents' Revolutionary War debts to British creditors to be paid off in depreciated currency or confiscated property and affirmed the terms of the federally negotiated Treaty of Paris (1783). The ruling thus established that federal treaties always take precedence over conflicting state laws.
