The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-03
IS INTERNATIONAL LAW. A LE- GAL FICTION OR A CONVENIENT MYTHg

GAL FICTION OR A CONVENIENT
 MYTH!
 There never was time when people were more interested in international law than the present. Representative public men from all over the world have been discussing International ar bitration as means for bringing about peace. and preserving it. at various centers in this country, while the Hague tribunal its work and Its pos abilities. have received the attention of a great conference of lawyers in Edinburgh All this is satisfactory as showing that the bloody struggle in the far east, with all the horror that attends it. has affected seriously the mind of the world Not only the gov ernments, but thinking men every where, are in favor of helping any working plan which will prevent war. or render it less likely to occur, or make it less savage when 1t does occur.
 But we must not expect that much can be done by congressman, or con ferences. or peace movements. They are valuable only in showing the con- dition of public opinion. One speaker | NAtS 0NAACA NelS NOtiApaANA NOA eSf NSASA- | ling. There was a time when the lat- ter practice was a regular habit with gentlemen. It has gone out. If gentle men don't any longer avenge real or l fancied injuries on the field of hon or" why, it may be asked, should not nations cease to settle their quarrels on the field of battle, under circunl- stances that suggest the encounter of bands of savage beasts? We know that such gallant and accomplished soldiers as Kuropatkin and Kuroki, while they play the game with great skill, deplore the necessity of slaugh- ter.
 l There is no parallel between war and duelling. Tine moment ''encounters be- I tween gentlemen" became illegal, the whole power of the law could berelied on to put them down. The person who killed another in a duel became 8 nur- derer. It was the duty of the police to act. But there is no policeman to make nations Keep from fighting, to separate them if they begin, or to pun ish the country which started the fight. l A law Is not law if 1t is not abso- lute, and if there is no adequate au- thority to enforce 1t. Hence sinterna- tional law is only a flaw by courte- l sy. 1t is a convenient fiction. Tn real ! ity It Is a myth Mir. Edward Dicey brings out this point ill an article in the Empire Review. He demurs to Mr. l Balfours statement that the British I government, in the Calehas case stood on ssthe solid basis of recognized inter- l national law to be found in all the text books, and which Is in accordance 1 with the general practice of civilized nations MT. Dicey demurs to the as- ' sumption that there is such q thing as a law of nations, or that if such I law exists, there is any tribunal by which the law can be enforced:
 The popular notion is that this law" 4 of nations has binding authority. It really has not. If any power thinks that the law has been broken, it can only protest. If the protest is not needed there is only one way to en- force the protest. That is the old, crude way, by resorting to war.
 MT. Dicey, who would like to know that there would be no more war, de- spairs of living to see any such reform. .pTill the arrival of the millennium one l of two conflicting parties must De pre- pared to give way to the other. If not, the only way in which Issues in dispute can ever be settled is by an appeal to brute force, or, in other words, to war.
 As a matter of fact, the inter national court of arbitration at the Hague has no more power of dictating to either Russia or Japan whether peace shall be made, or if so, upon what terms, than the discussion forum
 of Coger's hall." He also contends that .'there is yet no authoritative l statement which could be cited as de- tining, in accordance with internatlon- al law, what articles are or are not a contraband of war and that "practi- cally the force of each contention must 4I be decided, not by abstract arguments, but by the conflicting interests of the I rival belligerents.
 So what we come to is this: Any country should expect decent treat ment.-New York Evening Sun.
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