OF INTERNATIONAL LAW BY T. J. LAWRENCE, M.A., LL.D. MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW HONORARY FELLOW OF DOWNING COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE RECTOR OF UPTON LOVEL READER IN INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL FIFTH EDITION D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO PREFACE TO THE FOURTH AND FIFTH EDITIONS THE present edition of this book is practically a new work. The old title is retained, and with it the original divisions of the subject. But much of the old matter has been replaced by new, and the greater part of the remainder has been so altered by rearrangement, excision, and addition, as to be in effect new. Here and there, however, especially in the earlier chapters, a few pages remain untouched. Since The book was first published eighteen years ago. then we have seen the Spanish-American War, the Boer War, and the Russo-Japanese War, the two Hague Conferences with their Sixteen Conventions, the revised Geneva Convention, the Naval Conference with its epoch-making Declaration of London, the emergence of Japan as a Great Power and of Latin America as a force to be reckoned with in international transactions, the Pan-American Congresses (except the first) and the Central American Peace Conference, the revision of the maps of Southern Africa and Eastern Asia, the conversion of the United States into a maritime and colonizing power, the downfall of Turkey and the ferment in India and China, the readjustment of the balance of power in Europe more than once, and the creation of a world-balance in addition. The international jurist looks out on a new earth, and finds a new spirit abroad in it, or rather a new and more energetic manifestation of a spirit as old as the beginnings of his science. International Law was in its origin an attempt to impose some kind of curb on the passions of warriors, and substitute for brute force an appeal to justice in the mutual relations of states. And in the last few years there has been far greater progress toward these ends than has ever manifested itself before in an equal space of time. The two Hague Conferences have given an enormous impulse to the forces that make for peace. Among other achievements, they have provided means for calling into existence Arbitral Tribunals, and regulated procedure before them. Already this machinery has been used on several occasions with happy results. And, further, the hint given in the Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, that in default of a general treaty of arbitration each power might make separate treaties with its neighbors, has been so eagerly taken that about a hundred and fifty such treaties have been negotiated, and are still in force. This has been done for the prevention of war. For the mitigation of it, and the proper conduct of peaceful intercourse, we have, in the Hague Conventions and other documents accepted by the great body of civilized states, a statute book of the law of nations. Authoritative tribunals to interpret and administer its rules are growing up before our eyes. An International Prize Court of Appeal is confidently expected in the near future, and a High Court of Arbitral Justice will probably follow at no distant date. If sanctions are needed, something resembling an international police force is within the limits of possibility. But side by side with this growth of the apparatus of peace there has been a simultaneous growth of preparations for war. So burdensome have they become that the price paid by each nation for real or fancied security tends to depress industry, hinders social reform, and puts the means of aggression into the hands of any rulers who may be disposed to ignore the rights of others. There seems to be no remedy except the slow and gradual one of so developing the means of pacific settlement and the disposition to use them that the world will little by little throw off its costly panoply. In writing the following pages I have endeavored to see international life clearly and see it whole. Those who regard it as an exemplification of the law of the beasts can find numerous cases to support the conclusion in which, strange to say, they seem to glory. On the other hand, the enthusiasts of peace and good will can point to much in it that shows a marked capacity for the exercise of the social virtues. But each side seems to me to fall into the error of passing too lightly over the facts which militate against its views. I have tried to look at both sides of the shield and give my readers the means of forming their own conclusions. At the same time, I have indicated my belief that the period of rapid development through which we are now passing may end, if those who stand for righteousness among the nations are at once sane in their aims and earnest in their endeavors, in the establishment of an organized international society, with legislative, executive, and judicial organs. Were this once done, war would in time become as abnormal and infrequent as rebellion. Meanwhile it is the business of an expositor of the jus gentium to fit the rules of recent law-making documents into their proper places among the principles and customary precepts which till recently formed the staple of the subject and must still be used to explain and supplement the new material. The attempt to perform this task, and also to set forth the recent changes in the international order, has involved no small labor. The documents to be consulted are voluminous, and the commentaries on them are still more so. Versions of the Hague Conventions have been published in various languages; but to none am I so deeply indebted as to The Hague Peace Conferences of Dr. A. P. Higgins, whose work as a teacher at Cambridge, at the London School of Economics, and at the Royal Naval War College, has given to his learned expositions a point and aptness which add greatly to their value. In order to carry out my object, I was obliged to pull to pieces, as it were, the Hague Conventions and other documents, and rearrange their contents under the heads into which International Law seems to me |