Evening star., 1934-11-18
PAN.AMERICANISM SEEN
BASED UPON 3 FACTORS
Economics, Culture, Ethics Hold Fun.
damentals- Essence Is Application
of International Law.

From his university chair. from his
bench as judge Of the Supreme Court.
and from his present position as min
lister of foreign affairs, Itriago- Chacln
has so earnestly and so consistently
preached the modern trends Of inter-
national law that, as Pedro Rivero,
one of his pupils and secretary CT the
Venezuelan Legation at Washington,
remarked in the course Of broadcast
celebrating Venezuela's quarter OF
century of external and internal
peace, he has earned himself the title
of THE Golden Chancellor"
In his most recent book, DR.. 1triago-
Chacin not only makes a thorough
analysis of the elements entering into
international treaties, the process OF
their negotiation, their various cate
gories, etc., but he goes also into the
fundamental notions Of public law
which call for such treaties. And In
the course of this study he sets forth
some principles of law which easily
recall situations in the annals OF
inter-American relations in which
such principles were not always OBJ
ScINeQ. opCdhlklS, 4Ol 4AAoOhAANSs IA eAAS
respect which sovereign states owe
each other, he says that this implies
respect not only Of the moral dignity,
but of the material prosperity and
of the political personality of nations.
THE first" he, explains, requires of
a law-abiding State to abstain from
acts which denote superiority or are
unnecessarily offensive to other
states; the second, to abstain from
acts tending to<harm the national re-
sources of other states, and the third,
to abstain from acts which may nir-
der or disregard the domestic insti-
tutions or laws of other states"
In his endeavor to show the primacy
of the methods of law and peace in
the solution of international differ
ences, DR.. Itriago-C -Chacin traces the
development of arbitration and de-
scribes the attempts at the organiza-
ton Of peace which have character
lied the past 100 years. In this con-
nection, he, of course, could not fail
to mention the pioneering efforts of
great Venezuelan, Simon Bolivar,
the nberator, who was just century
ahead of the statesmen of his time
He, furthermore, points with pride
to the fact that the juridical founda-
tions of the present tendencies are
not unlike those of the Bolivarian
theories.
Sees New Stage.
In the covenant of the League of
Nations and in the establishment Of
the Permanent Court of Information
al Justice, DR.. Itriago-C Chacin sees
the beginning Of a new stage in the
development Of these ideas. They now
of the great majority Of civilized ma
tions. 1T has been argued" he says,
with narrow minded and exag-
geratedly materialistic criterion, that
international law was not law at all,
because it lacked the 'dramatis per-
sonae' which makes law visible and
tangible-the legislator, the Judge and
the policeman. The covenant of the
League may. perhaps, supply us with
all these. 1t has already given us the
legislator par excellence Judge and
executor of all great awards: the vigi-
liant public opinion of mankind"
DR.. Itriago- -Chacin's book concludes
with a lengthy and detailed discus
sion of the code of private interna-
tional law approved by the American
republics at the sixth international
conference OF Havana, and a COM
parison of its provisions with those
Of Venezuelan legislation. In it, the
student of international law will find
enlightenment, both as to technical
matters and as to practical ways and
means in which the cause of Pan
Americanism may be advanced along
the only road in which it can sustain
its gains, that Of the accepted canons
of the law of nations.
(Copyright. 1934J >-s@,4