ON INTERNATIONAL LAW SELECTED FROM DECISIONS OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN COURTS EDITED WITH SYLLABUS AND ANNOTATIONS BY JAMES BROWN SCOTT A.M. (HARVARD), J.U.D. (HEIDELBERG) DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS "War and Peace divide the business of the world” DR. JOHNSON BASED ON THE LATE DR. FREEMAN SNOW'S CASES AND OPINIONS THE BOSTON BOSTON BOOK COMPANY Law Publishers and Booksellers ΤΟ ANDREW SLOAN. DRAPER, LL.D. PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FORMERLY JUDGE OF THE COURT OF COMMISSIONERS OF ALABAMA CLAIMS A PRUDENT COUNSELLOR, A LOYAL FRIEND THE SOUL OF HONOR PREFACE. THE present book was intended to be a revision of the late Dr. Snow's Cases and Opinions on International Law, published in 1893. The changes made in the course of revision were, however, so many and so radical that it seemed advisable to the publisher to issue it as an independent work, and it so appears. The arrangement closely follows Dr. Snow's; in fact, it is identical with it in most respects. His text has been utilized so far as possible; his notes have generally been retained and enlarged, and the Syllabus has been thoroughly revised and remade. Much of the merit-if any there be justly belongs to Dr. Snow, but the present editor is responsible for the undertaking as a whole. The idea underlying this volume is that international law is part of the English common law; that as such it passed with the English colonists to America; that when, in consequence of a successful rebellion, they were admitted to the family of nations, the new republic recognized international law as completely as international law recognized the new republic. Municipal law it was in England; municipal law it remained and is in the United States. No opinion is expressed on the vexed question whether it is law in the abstract; our courts, State and Federal, take judicial cognizance of its existence, and in appropriate cases enforce it, so that for the American student or practitioner it is domestic or municipal law. If English and American courts of justice enforce international law, and have repeatedly done so in the past two centuries, there must be, and, in fact, there is, a mass of judicial decision on this subject. There should be the same reason for respecting precedent in this as in other branches of the law; and beyond doubt in suits involving a question of international law a case in point is cited and followed, unless overruled or distinguished from the case under Judicial decisions, then, are an important and source of authority in international law. consideration. indispensable |