The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-08-27
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENG
LAND ADDRESSED AMERICAN
BAR ASSOCIATION
ON INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. u
He Says the Greatest Calamity Which
Could Befall the English Nations
Would Be Strife Which Would
Divide Them.


sell of Killowen, lord chief justice of
England. on international Arbitration"
before the American Bar association. 1t
was one of the most distinguished audi
ences that ever gathered here. When
Lord Russell entered the hall he was
greeted with hearty applause, and as he
assembled the platform the ovation was
increased. Besides Lord Russell there
were grouped on the platform United
States Supreme Court Judge Rufus w.
Peckham, United States Attorney Gen
eral Harmon, New York Court of APP
peals Judge Bartlett, Hon. Cortland
Parker of New Jersey. United States
District Court Judge Randolph Tucker
of Virginia, Hon. Henry ii. Hitchcock
of st. Louis, Hon. William Allen Butler
of New York. Hon. Edward ]. Phelps
of St Louis, Hon. James c. Carter of New
York, Hon. Nathan l.. Shipman of Con-
nectcut, Bishop John Newman and Sir
Francis Lockwood and Montague Nc
Cracker Thorpe.
President of the Association Mooretield
Storey of Boston, on presenting Lord
Russell, said: Il have now the very
great pleasure, not of introducing, for he
needs no introduction TO any English
speaking lawyers, the lord chief justice
of England, who viii deliver the annual
address on the subject of international
Arbitration"
Lord Russell prefaced his words by
hut Ia, nd ain ~ ln1, nj
the loving and hearty welcome with
which he was hOnored on this occasion.
Mr.. President-My first words must
be in acknowledgment of the honor done
me by inviting me to address you on tins
interesting occasion. You are congress
of lawyers of the United States, met to-
gether to take counsel, i'll no narrow
spirit. on questions affecting the interests
of your profession. /. on the other hand,
come from the judicial bench of Il dis
tant land. Though we represent political
communities which differ widely i'll many
respects, in the structure of their constr
buttons and otherwise. we yet have many
things in common. We speak the same
language, we administer laws based on
the same judicial conceptions: we are
co-heirs in the rich traditions of political
| freedom long established, and we ENJOY
IN common Il literature the noblest ana
yond this the unseen crimson thread
of kinship, stretching from the mother
islands to your great continent, unite us
and reminds us always that we belong
TO the same, though mixed, racial tam
ily. This consideration is prominent
among those which suggest the theme
ON which l desire to address you-namely
international law.
WHAT Is INTERNATIONAL. LAW?
| call the rules which civilized nations
have agreed shall bind them i'll their con
duct inter Sc. by the Benthamite title.
international law" And here. Mr.. Pres
ident, on the threshold of my subject,
| find an obstacle in my way. 1t Is SAID
by some that there is no international
law. that there is only II bundle. more
or less confused, of rules To which ma
tons more or less conform but that in
ternational law there is none. The late
Sir James +. Stephen takes this view i'll
his History of the Criminal Law of
England" and in the celebrated Fran
COMA case the late Lord Coleridge
speaks in the same sense. He says:
Strictly speaking. international law is
an ineXact expression and it is apt to mis-
lead if its eXactness is not kept in mind.
Law implies a law given and tribunal
capable of enforcing it and coercing its
| transgressors." Indeed, it may be said
that with few exceptions the same note
is sounded throughout the judgments in
that case. These views, it will at once
be seen, are based on the definition of
law by Austin in his Province of Juris-
prudence DETERMINED namely, that
law is the command of superior who
has coercive power to compel obedience
and punish disobediencc. But this def
milton is too narrow; it relies too much
on force as the governing idea. If the
development of law is historically con-
Sidered, it will be found to exclude that
body of customary law Which in early
stages of society precedes law which as
sumes definitely the character of positive
command coupled with punitive sane
tons. But even in societies in which the
machinery exists for the making of law
in the Austinian sense. rules or customs
grow up which are laws in every real
sense of the word as. for example, the
law merchant Under later developments
of arbitrary power laws may be regard
ed as the command of Il superior with a
coercive power in Austin's sense: Quod
placuit principi legis vigorem habet. In
stages later still. as government becomes
more frankly democratic, resting broadly
on the popular will, laws bear less and
less the character of commands imposed
by a cocrcive authority. and acquire more
and more the character of customary
law founded Oh consent. Savigny. in
deed. says of all law that it is first de-
veloped by usage and popular faith, then
by legislation and always by internal 81
lently operating powers, and not mainly
by the arbitrary will of the lawgiver.
What. then, is international law |
know no better definition of it than that
it is the sum of the rules or usages which
civilized states have agreed shall be bind
ing upon them in their dealings with one
another
NO INTERNATIONAL CODE.
We do not, indeed, find all those rules
recorded in clear language-there is no
international code We look for them
in the long records of customary action;
in settled precedents; IN treaties affirm
ing principles; in state documents; in
declarations of nations in conclave-
which draw to themselves the adhesion
of other nations; in declarations of text
writers of authority generally accepted,
and, lastly, and with most precision, in
the field which they cover, in the au-
thoritative decisions of prize courts.
From these sources we get the evidence
which determines whether or not a par
ticular canon of conduct, or particu-
lar principle, has or has not received the
express or implied assent of nations.
But International law is not as the
twelve tables of ancient Rome. 1t is
not a closed book. Mankind are not
stationary. Gradual change and grad
nal growth of ODiniOn are silently going