BOOK REVIEWS La Grande Guerre Européenne et la Neutralité du Chili. By Alejandro Alvarez, former Counsellor to the Ministry for Foreign affairs of Chili, etc. Paris: A Pedone. 1915. pp. 315. As is indicated by the title, the second part of the present volume, whose author has long occupied an eminent position among specialists in international relations, is devoted to an exposition of the questions of neutrality in the discussion of which his own country, Chile, had during the first year of the pending conflict been particularly concerned. In the first part, questions of neutrality also form an important element, but the survey takes a much wider range, and embraces a consideration of the fundamental causes of the war, a comparison of the European and American political systems, and a series of suggestions as to how armed conflicts are to be avoided in the future. In contrasting the European and American systems, the learned author, continuing to employ the nomenclature with which his name is somewhat distinctively associated, speaks of a "European International Law" and an "American International Law." In these phrases the term "international law" evidently is used in a special and limited sense, since, in its ordinary and general sense, "international law" is neither European nor American. What is really meant is that there is an international system in Europe different from that which exists in America, and that each system has certain rules of its own which are not appropriate and therefore are not common to the other. The extent to which it may be desirable or may be possible to reform the world after the present great European conflict is over, is a question concerning which opinions naturally vary. In some cases this variance seems to be at least partly due to different attitudes as to the effect of violations of international law. On the one hand, it is assumed that the obligatory character of international law is not destroyed by the actual disregard of its rules by belligerents, while on the other hand there seems to be a tendency to act upon the sup position that when rules are violated they cease to exist, so that, after the war is ended, it will be necessary to make international law over again. The latter view has no doubt obtained a certain currency because of the general assumption that the rules of international law have been more extensively violated or disregarded by belligerents in the present conflict than in the previous great European wars. This assumption may readily be shown to be largely or wholly unfounded. No doubt new conditions may call for the application of new rules, but even in this respect, as Lord Stowell once judicially and judiciously observed, the change may consist in the adaptation of an old principle rather than in the invention of a new one. It has therefore generally been found that after great conflicts what was required was the reëstablishment rather than the creation of law. For the performance of this task of the future the learned author offers numerous suggestions which can scarcely be examined within the limits of a book review. One line of development which he proposes is that neutrals shall be permitted by means of commissions acting in the various belligerent countries to take a more direct and more active part than they have heretofore done in observing military operations in countries at war and acting upon alleged violations of the laws of war. The work as a whole merits careful consideration, both by reason of its intrinsic interest and of the author's position as a publicist. JOHN BASSETT MOORE. La Penetrazione Straniera nell'Estremo Oriente. By E. CATTELANI. Florence: Barbèra. 1915. pp. 493. The exceptional character of international law as applied to foreigners in China had for a long time suggested the necessity of a clear, compendious and complete statement of the origin and extension of their privileges; of the nature of consular jurisdiction in controversies between foreigners, between foreigners and natives and in criminal cases; of the immunities guaranteed by treaties to the citizens of other countries residing in China; of the differences between the Capitulations of the Near East, and the Extraterritoriality of the Far East, which has given rise, so to speak, to divers small states within the state itself. Professor Enrico Catellani, of the Royal University of Padua, has accomplished this work in his scholarly book under review. The author, tracing the historical origin of the Concessions, reviews the spontaneous formation of the groups of foreign populations on the Chinese territory. Thoroughly acquainted with the treaties concluded between China and the Western Powers, he gives us much information both interesting and useful about the areas set apart for the residence and use of foreigners; about the character of the said concessions and the titles of possession thereto. He brings out the injury inflicted upon the territorial sovereignty and native property by the erroneous interpretation and construction of some of the treaties; he explains the necessities which compelled these same concessions to provide for their own administration; he reviews them and analyzes their government, their municipal autonomy and their tutelary authorities. The author presents in a few pages a complete synthesis of the Chinese sovereignty over the said concessions, of the authorities which govern them, of their similar history, of the form and development of the territorial concessions and the transfers of the same to other states. The doctrines expounded in this work, the important researches of its author, the interesting documents with which he has enriched it, which comprise a long period of time, entitles it to be considered as a guide, a vade mecum of great value for the officer in the Far East, and as a precious summary for the student who wishes to have a definite idea of the exceptional law applying to foreigners in these distant regions of the world. P. HERRERA DE HUERTA.1 The Rules of Private International Law Determining Capacity to Contract. By F. T. Cheng, LL.D. (London). London: Stevens & Sons. 1916. pp. xvi, 134. This little volume contains a scholarly exposition of a difficult subject, difficult at least when treated, as here, from the standpoint of the English decisions, though simple enough under the principles adopted by the American courts. Thus, while the latter courts have adopted the uniform rule that the proper law to govern the capacity of a party to contract is the 1 Review translated from Spanish into English by Mr. Pedro Capo-Rodriguez, of Washington, D.C. law of the place where the contract is made, or the lex loci celebrationis, save when the title to land is involved, our author, dealing with the English decisions applicable to the subject, has been constrained to divide contracts into three classes, in order to determine definitely the English rules controlling such capacity. These classes are (1) contracts other than business contracts or contracts relating to immovables; (2) business contracts; and (3) contracts relating to immovables. As concerns capacity, 'his conclusion is that the English courts will look to the lex domicilii to control the first class, to the lex loci contractus (law of the place where the contract is made) to govern the second, and to the lex loci rei sitae to regulate the third. Upon reading his discussion of this classification of contracts, one is tempted to surmise that the author has perhaps mistaken confusion of the judicial mind as to the proper law for a conscious distribution of contracts into the classes mentioned. To the mind of the American reviewer it seems probable that upon the final settlement of the principles controlling this question the English courts will be found aligned with their American cousins in discarding altogether the lex domicilii as the proper law in such cases. - The capacity to marry is treated by our author under a separate head on the ground that marriage is not a contract but a status, — a conclusion which, as it relates to the capacity to marry, would seem to be justified only upon the theory that a conveyance of land or other executed contract is not a contract. True, the solemn agreement whereby the consorts take one another as man and wife ushers in and creates a status of marriage, but so also a conveyance of land creates a status of ownership. The phrase "capacity to marry" would seem to apply to the capacity to contract marriage, not the capacity to live the married life. And this view, rather than the author's own, appears to be borne out by the result of his investigation of the English decisions. Beginning with Scrimshire v. Scrimshire [1752] 2 Hagg. Cons. 395, he shows that the early English doctrine was that the capacity to marry is governed by the law of the place when the contract of marriage is entered into, and not by the law of the place where the parties live; and that while, in Sottomayor v. DeBarros [1877] 3 P. D. (C. A.) 1, the court seems to have receded from that position and to have decided in favor of the law of the domicil, yet in the later case of Ogden v. Ogden [1908] P. (C. A.) 46, it has definitely returned to the earlier position. The book shows signs of a wide investigation of the authorities not in England only but on the Continent as well, and amply repays the reader's study. RALEIGH C. MINOR. Elements of International Law. By George B. Davis. 4th ed. Revised by Gordon E. Sherman. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1916. pp. xxiv, 668. The last edition of General Davis' well known Elements of International Law was published in 1908. A thorough revision of the book in the light of international events which have taken place since 1908 was amply justified. The publishers are, however, to be criticised in taking advantage of the present interest in international law by a new edition of a text book which would naturally be supposed to give the latest developments of international law but which actually makes no addition either to the facts or to the interpretation of international law rules as expounded in the earlier edition of the book. The extent to which the electro-plates of the third edition were used made impossible anything approximating a revision. As a matter of fact 445 of the old plate pages of the text out of a possible 482 have been preserved. The book is advertised as a revised edition, and the preface states that it is the purpose of the reviser to "supplement the original text and notes sufficiently to place the work abreast of the numerous additions to the literature of the subject brought forth by the events of the past eight years." The retention and use of the old plates made it difficult to attain the purpose set forth by the reviser, and so we have a book which, except for the addition of a few important documents in the appendix, is practically the same as the edition of 1908. In no sense can it be said to "stand abreast" of other works upon international law. In fact, as an up-to-date text book upon international law, it is far inferior to the texts of Lawrence, Wilson or Hershey, all of which have been either written or rewritten since the London Naval Conference of 1908-09 and which have incorporated the principles agreed upon in that conference. An illustration of the utter |