Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

two apparent or suggested exceptions. A place has been claimed in this sphere for the individual man as the possessor of certain human or natural rights. Again, an exceptional position has been conceded to the Papacy in the international community. Both of those suggestions are disposed of very summarily. The third proposal which is dealt with is a very curious one supported by certain eminent students of the Italian school of international law, namely that the nation should be substituted for the state as the subject of the science. We have here apparently, on what we generally assume to consider s purely scientific ground, an offshoot of theory which is largely referable to the modern history of Italy and the supreme importance which the idea of nationality as against mere political organization acquired in that history.

It is a useful reminder that in none of those subjects in which human will and sentiment are involved is a purely scientific point of view possible.

A somewhat more extended consideration is given to the condition of a party to civil war, the belligerency of which has been recognized by neutrals. This is in fact recognition as a state, though its effects are for the time limited to certain relations only those namely which are connected with the laws of war and of neutrality.

Having rejected decisively all the various heresies propounded, and having reaffirmed his acceptance of the doctrine that the states and only the states are subjects of international law, the author proceeds to a historical review of the varying conceptions of the state in that character as it appears in the several schools from the time of Grotius, the father and founder of the science, till our own day.

This historical thread of theory forms a subject well calculated to appeal to Dr. Rapisardi-Mirabelli, and he follows it out at some length. It is enough to say that he distinguishes two main opposing schools of thought, both branching off from their root in Grotius, both reaching once more a kind of unity or reconciliation in the modern eclecticism. The naturalistic school identifies the law of nations with the law of nature and indeed a very problematic and supposititious state. of nature. Against this we have the positive or historical school directing attention rather to the facts and international relations as they exist in practice, supplying a much needed criticism of the tendency towards extreme individualism which existed in the naturalistic school, and gradually forcing the course of the science back into safer ways.

Eventually the great conception of the community of states arises, and with it that of the personality of each several state as a member of that community; and this deeper idea of personality, to which legal rights and obligations can attach takes the place of uncompromising individuality, which appeared to risk loss and self-negation with every concession to the equal and independent individualities around it.

The state as a person then, the subject of rights and no longer, whether as territory or people, the mere object of the rights of a sovereign or superior, is the great discovery of the school of Grotius in the field of theory, the achievement mainly of the French Revolution in practice.

The personality which is here in question, however, is to be limited to a purely legal conception, existing in virtue of the possession by the state of special interests and the will to realize them. It is a creation of law, and this creation which is at the basis of all international relations is objectified in the special and singular case of the recognition of a new nation entering for the first time into relations with existing communities. In virtue of this recognition it steps from a condition of existence in fact to one of existence in law. Here, according to the author, is the true root and foundation of all international law.

The last pages of this study are dedicated to the bearing of the previous argument and conclusion on the systemization of international law. If the foundation is legal personality, and the state as the subject of rights, the classification based on the so-called fundamental or absolute rights of the state, which are practically such as it can exercise apart from and independently of the other members of the international community, is no longer admissible. International law is the law of the reciprocal relations between nations, and it cannot cover any ground on which these relations are non-existent.

The mode of treatment adopted by Dr. Rapisardi-Mirabelli and his conscientious endeavor to present the varying theories on the subject under discussion, tend to make it difficult to retain a firm hold of the logical thread, and to deprive his work of some part of the interest which ought to attach to it. It is not impossible that some compression, an effort to throw into better relief the views which he maintains, and more rigorous exclusion of what does not have direct bearing on the line of argument, would impart greater value to his studies, and it would certainly make them easier reading.

JAMES BARCLAY.

The Effect of War on Contracts and on Trading Associations in Territories of Belligerents. By Coleman Phillipson, M. A., LL. D. London: Stevens and Haynes, 1909. 1909. pp. 114.

The author of the present monograph is favorably known by his two studies in international law, published in 1908 and reviewed in this. JOURNAL, Vol. II, p. 722. The volume now under review is, its author states, the Quain Prize Essay for the year 1908 in the Department of Law at University College, London. The original essay, we are told, has been somewhat enlarged and brought up to date, and the very important conclusions of the International Naval Conference held at London in 1909 have been incorporated in the text.

International law is such a large and comprehensive system that an author does well and is to be commended who seeks out some important topic and treats it at considerable length. The appearance of monographs on various important phases of international law would not only inform the general reader and the student of international law, but would lighten the burden of him who seeks to present the practice of nations in systematic form. The future of international law is with the monograph.

As regards the book under review, it is a pleasure to note that Mr. Phillipson has brought to his task a knowledge of the Continental literature as well as of the leading English and American treatises, and that he has examined the effect of war on contracts in the light of Continental and Anglo-American theory and practice. He has carefully read. the leading English and American cases on the subject, has analyzed and distinguished them and stated in clear and concise terms the principles of the law to be deduced from them. The theories of nationality and domicile are carefully considered and the situation of trading companies in enemy territory is examined not only on principle but in the light of actual cases, with particular reference to the decisions arising from the recent war in South Africa.

The reviewer has read Mr. Phillipson's monograph with both pleasure and profit, and he commends it to the general reader and the student of international law in the belief that they will likewise be interested and informed by its perusal.

JAMES BROWN SCOTT.

Annuaire de la Vie Internationale. Fondé par A. H. Fried et publié par les soins de l'Institut International de Bibliographie et de l'Institut International de la Paix. Seconde série. Volume I. 19081909. Brussels Office central de Institutions Internationales, rue de la Régence, 3 bis. 8vo, 181+1370 pages. 20 francs (imported $5). This is one of the most notable volumes of information appertaining to international law published in many days. It is an outgrowth of an annual of the same name founded by the well-known pacifist enthusiast and writer, Alfred Hermann Fried of Vienna, and published in duodecimo volumes of 159, 314 and 254 pages respectively in 1905, 1906 and 1907 by the Institut International de la Paix of Monaco. It has grown immensely under its new auspices, the Central Office of International Institutions of Brussels, and Mr. Fried now has associated with him as an editorial committee Henri La Fontaine and Paul Otlet, both diligent students and pacifists.

The extent to which international co-operation has advanced is doubtless the most remarkable fact borne in upon any one who looks into this volume. The index contains about 675 separate entries, very few of which are duplicates.

It is the introduction of 181 pages that contains the summarizing information. It consists of three essays: "The Science of Internationalism" by Alfred H. Fried, "International Organization and International Associations" by Paul Otlet and "Documentation and Internationalism" by Henri La Fontaine.

The Annual of the International Life is unique in its sponsors and its editing. At Brussels, it seems, some 42 different international unions, associations, institutes and commissions have permanent bureaus. These in 1906 organized the Central Office of International Institutions and the present Annual is virtually its first fruit, although its Bulletin is now appearing regularly and the International Exposition at Brussels, which opened in May, is also one of its undertakings. It aims to give all possible aid to international organizations, to coordinate their work, to encourage new formations, to organize congresses and, in connection with the International Institute of Bibliography, to build up a great library of internationalism.

This latter task is at once difficult and important. The Annual necessitated the consultation of over 1500 works and because organizations of the character it considers are usually private in large measure their publications are hard to obtain. "In this respect," says M. La

Fontaine," the international institutions and associations have the greatest interest that their publications be speedily consigned to oblivion. They have often occasioned considerable expense and by lack of sufficient publicity they remain piled up at one or another printer's, secretariat or presidency and end by being sold as old paper or destroyed, to the great detriment to the ideas from which they have resulted." Nevertheless, the task has been undertaken.

As a reference book the present product has several things to commend it which might be profitably followed in principle by other publications. As is well known, the chief difficulty in consulting an annual publication whose contents from year to year supplement previous information is the bothersome necessity of referring backward to numerous indices. This handicap has been overcome in several ways, two of which are the republication of an index to the special features of earlier volumes and another is the looseleaf encyclopedia method. M. La Fontaine, however, assures the reader that by resort to the system of decimal classification adopted for cataloguing by the International Institute of Bibliography this annual will be immediately accessible in all its parts to the inquirer.

According to the Institute's scheme all books may be classified under ten heads: general, philosophy, religion, social science, philology, pure science, applied science, fine arts, literature, history and geography. A book's number is determined by re-application of this list and its rubrics as many times as necessary. Thus, the first part of this work has uniformly the major rubric 341, the 3 placing the subject under social science, the 4 confining it to the fourth arbitrary subdivision. under that branch and the 1 defining it as the philosophical segment thereunder. For closer classification a point is used and the figures similarly built up. Thus the portion devoted to the Bureau of the International Union of American Republics bears the rubric 341.25. The proper rubric is printed at the top of every page opposite the regular pagination, and by this device it is intended to give the reader constantly the cue for further investigation. But the remedy may be worse than the disease, considering that it takes 2250 pages fully to elucidate this system of classification in its manual.

M. La Fontaine also suggests that as persons interested in the information contained in the volume may desire to extract sections from it and bind them separately, the editors have provided for such a desire by beginning each notice on the right-hand page, to insure against

« ZurückWeiter »