The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-25
AFFIRMATION LAW
AMERICAN SOCIETY IN SECOND AN
 ,NUAL CONVENTION.
Secretary of State Roof, Who is Pres- ident of the Society, Makes Ad. dress on "sanctious of In-
 ternatiOnaI Law"

Washington, April 24.-The second annual meeting of the American So- ciety of International Law was begun at the New Willard Hotel here today. A program of discussion has been ar- ranged which will keep the hundred or more members of the society en- gagged until tomorrow night. when the meeting Is to end with banquet at
 which the climax of oratory will be | reached.
 Secretary Root. president of the so- ciety. opened the meeting with an ad- dress on The Sanctions of Interna- tional Law" in which he took occa. sion to discuss most interestingly the developing force of public opinion in international affairs. He said:
 "One accustomed to the administra- tion of municipal law who turns his attention for the first time to the dis cussion of practical questions arising between nations and dependent upon | the rules of international law, must be struck by a difference between the two systems which materially affects the intellectual process and involved in every discussion. and which is appar- ently fundamental. The proofs and arguments adduced by the municipal lawyer are addressed to the object of setting in motion cer- tain legal machinery which will re- suit in a judicial judgment to be en- forced by the entire power of the State over litigants subject to it's Jurisdic- tion and control.
 When the internationa! law, on the other hand, proceeds to seek the es- tabIishment of rights or the redress of | wrongs in a concrete case, he has ap- parently no objective point to which he can address his proofs or arguments. except the conscience and sense of jus tice of the opposing party to the con troversy. In only rare, exceptional and peculiar cases do the conclusions of Isthe international lawyer, however, clearly demonstrated, have behind them the compulsory effect of possible war.
 "In the vast majority of practical questions arising under the rules of international law there does not ap- pear on the surface to be any reason
 why either party should abandon its
 own contention or yield against it's
 own interest to the arguments of the other side. This apparent absence of
 sanction for the enforcement of the | rules of international law has led great authorities to deny that those rules are | entitled to be called law at all; and this apparent hopelessness of fnality carries to the mind which limits its
 consideration to the procedure in each particular case a sense of futility of argument Nevertheless all the foreign | offices of the civilized world are con-
 tinually discussing with each other | questions of international law both
 public and private, cheerfully and hope
 fully marshallihg facts, furnishing eV'-
 dence and presenting arguments and
 building up records designed to show
 that the rules of international law re-
 uuire such and such things to be done | or such and such things to be left undone. And in countless cases nations
 are welding to such arguments and l shaping their conduct against their
 own apparent interests in the particu- l lar cases under discussion in obedience
 to the rules which are shown to be ap- | plicable.
 Careful consideration seems to lead
 to the conclusion that there are sane
 tions for the enforcement of interna- | tional laws no less real and substan~
 tial than those which secure obed-
 fence to municipal law.
 Tn the vast majority of cases, men l refrain from criminal conduct be-
 cause they are unwilling to incur in
 the community in which they live the
 public condemnation which would fol- l low a reputation of the standard of conduct prescribed by that commun- l ity for it's members. Where 1t hap
 pens that the law and public opinion | point different ways, the latter is in-
 variably the stronger. The force of
 law is in the public opinion, which pre-
 scribes it. Conformity to the stand
 ard of business integrity which ob-
 tains in the community is necessary
 to be a success. Social esteem and
 standing. power and high place in the
 professions, in public ofilce, in all as
 sociated enterprise, depend upon con- 1 forrnity to the standards of conduct in
 the community. Loss of these is the
 most terrible penalty society can in-
 fict
 The rules of international law are
 enforced by the same kind of sanct- l ion, less certain peremptory but con
 tinually increasing in effectiveness of | control A decent respect to the optn- l ions of mankind did not begin or end
 among nations with the American Dec
 laration of Independence; but 1t Is in-
 teresting that on the first public na- | tional act in the new world should be | an appeal to that universal, interna-
 tional public opinion, the power and eff l fectiveness of which the new world has done so much to promoee. "In former times, each isolated ma | tion satisfied with its own opinion Of | itself and indifferent to the opinion of l others separated from all others by | mutual ignorance and mistudgment,
 regarded only the physical power of | other nations. Now, however tners
 may be seen plainly the effects of 6