OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATUS OF CUBA The status of Cuba since the ratification of the Treaty of Paris is anomalous. Viewed as a whole it might be called unique, could this distinction be safely applied to any political condition. I The first paragraph of the First Article of the Treaty of Paris reads: "Spain relinquishes all claim "of sovereignty over and title to Cuba." Here is a parting with territory by Spain, yet there is no cession, nor even a surrender in the sense of a transfer. At the end of the peace negotiations Spain did what at their commencement she protested could not be done; she abandoned Cuba, after vainly striving to induce the United States to accept it from her hands. Yet the island, though abandoned, did not become a derelict, being straightway occupied, although not annexed, by the United States. In these circumstances Cuba remains as foreign to our domestic system as it was when under the dominion of Spain. It is not within the purview of the Constitution, nor of any law of the United States; nor within the territorial jurisdiction of Congress, for this is the legislature of the United States, and not of This paper is reprinted, somewhat revised, from Yale Law Journal, June, 1900, with the permission of the editors. 173 any other country. This limitation of congressional power is prescribed by the rule that the acts of a legislature have no force in foreign territory, except, of course, as they may be held to affect citizens abroad. This rule is sometimes stated in terms recognizing the inability of one state to depreciate the sovereignty of another by asserting jurisdiction in the latter's territory, and were this the whole reason for the rule there might be difficulty in applying it to Cuba, where there is no sovereignty to be depreciated. But the sufficient reason for the rule is that a legislature is without territorial jurisdiction beyond the limits of the country in which it is sovereign.1 The second paragraph of the First Article of the Treaty of Paris reads: “And as the island is, upon "its evacuation by Spain, to be occupied by the "United States, the United States will, so long as "such occupation shall last, assume and discharge "the obligations that may, under international law, "result from the fact of its occupation, for the pro"tection of life and property." In considering the nature and effect of this occupation from the standpoints of the different parties interested in Cuba we shall gain an approximate idea of the status of the island. II From the standpoint of the United States Cuba is a foreign country in our occupation and control. The occupation is not beneficial to us, as it would 1 See supra, p. 24. |