EDWIN M. BORCHARD, LL.B., PH.D. SOMETIME EXPERT ON INTERNATIONAL LAW, NORTH ATLANTIC COAST THE BANKS LAW PUBLISHING CO. NEW YORK PREFACE With the drawing together of the world by increased facilities for travel and communication, the number of persons going abroad for purposes of business or of pleasure has steadily increased. Coincidentally, an increasing amount of capital, American as well as European, has been seeking investment in foreign countries, and the growth of international commerce and intercourse has resulted in the creation of vast commercial and other interests abroad. These movements of men, money, and commodities, while of economic advantage to the exploiting and to the exploited country and establishing bonds of mutual dependency between them, also create occasional friction. The individual abroad finds himself in legal relation to two countries, the country of which he is a citizen, and the country in which he resides or establishes his business. From the point of view of the one, he is a citizen abroad; from the point of view of the other, he is an alien. The common consent of nations has established a certain standard of conduct by which a state must be guided in its treatment of aliens. In the absence of any central authority capable of enforcing this standard, international law has authorized the state of which the individual is a citizen to vindicate his rights by diplomatic and other methods sanctioned by international law. This right of diplomatic protection constitutes, therefore, a limitation upon the territorial jurisdiction of the country in which the alien is settled or is conducting business. The standard of treatment which an alien is entitled to receive is incapable of exact definition. The common practice of the civilized. nations and the adjudication of conflicts between nations, particularly by arbitration, arising out of alleged violations of the rights of citizens abroad, have nevertheless developed certain fundamental principles from which no nation can depart without incurring international responsibility to the national state of the person injured. The right which every state possesses to protect its citizens abroad is correla |