  We explore the possibility of modifying the classical Gauss free energy
functional used in capillarity theory by considering surface tension energies
of nonlocal type. The corresponding variational principles lead to new
equilibrium conditions which are compared to the mean curvature equation and
Young's law found in classical capillarity theory. As a special case of this
family of problems we recover a nonlocal relative isoperimetric problem of
geometric interest.
