ADVANCE IN LAW AND JUSTICE
By LUTHER E. HEWITT, L.B.,
Librarian of Philadelphia Law Association.
I. International Law.—Exclusive rights asserted in past centuries have been succeeded by freedom of the seas and privileges on the rivers. The principle back of the American guns off the Barbary coasts has prevailed. Crimes of one country against another are punishable in either. Extradition for nonpolitical crimes is general. Expatriation has been won for those who would change their country. Internal affairs of countries are free from interference; but a rule may be so revolting, or so hurtful to foreign interests, as to justify intervention. The Monroe doctrine was intimated in the Declaration of Independence, and has developed with our country. Regard for other nations has increased. Protectorates and spheres of influence are respected, while recognition of insurgent States will not be hurried. Devastation and weapons causing needless pain are condemned, while guerillas are regulated by requirement of a responsible head, a badge recognizable at a distance, and subjection to rules of war. The sick and wounded, attendants, and appliances are protected from intentional attack.
Open, unfortified places are in practice spared, and ransoms no longer extorted. Twenty-four hours are allowed for withdrawal of noncombatants from places to be attacked. Military occupation no longer confers sovereign power; and compensation on the closing of war has been recommended for private property of an enemy used in military operations.
Impartial neutrality is demanded. Nations once bound themselves for troops in case others went to war. This has ceased. Passage of troops through neutral territory is not allowed. Even sick and wounded will be denied if their passage would relieve a combatant’s own lines; but neutrals have interned such refugees. The neutral cannot allow fitting out of armed expeditions or enlistment of troops. Jefferson advanced international law by demanding Genet’s recall for such offenses. Carriage of signals, dispatches, or persons in military operations is unneutral, and the United States insisted that this ruled the Trent affair. A belligerent’s ship of war can remain in port but twenty-four hours, unless in an emergency, like need of repairs. Coal will be afforded only to the nearest port, nor will a new supply be furnished within three months. Statutes enforce some of these rules. Neutral trade is not lost except on blockade, although goods which may be put to military uses are liable to seizure as contraband. “Free ships, free goods,” was long contended for; and at last the Declaration of Paris, in 1856, provided even further, as follows: (1) Privateering is and remains abolished. (2) The neutral flag covers enemy’s goods, with the exception of contraband of war. (3) Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under an enemy’s flag. (4) Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effectual. Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States declined to adhere to the Declaration. The United States adopted 2, 3, and 4, and offered to agree to the abolition of privateering if noncontraband property of the enemy were exempted under its own flag. The United States and Spain refrained from privateering in the recent war. Private property of the enemy on land has long been exempt from capture.
INDEPENDENCE HALL AND SQUARE. WINTER SCENE.
II. Law-Making Bodies.—State legislators were originally chosen from landed proprietors, except, perhaps, in Pennsylvania. Legislatures frequently had the selection of governors, judges, and other high officials, but the Ohio constitution in 1802 foreshadowed the coming democracy. Distrust has followed reliance on legislatures. Their sessions have been limited in about half the States to an average of less than ninety days, and almost everywhere made biennial. Increase of the members’ own compensation is forbidden. Their duties are carefully prescribed. Common requirements are, reading of bills on three days; one subject for a bill, and that expressed in title; recital of old law, upon revision; prohibition of riders on appropriations. Nearly half the States require a majority in each house of all members elected thereto. Constitutional restrictions on state and municipal indebtedness and loan followed the burdens assumed in the first exultation over inventions in transportation. The Pennsylvania constitution, for instance, prohibits “local or special laws” in about thirty cases, such as in municipal affairs, descent of property, judicial proceedings, remitting penalties, exemption from taxation, regulating labor, chartering corporations. Boundaries between legislative and judicial proceedings have been simplified; special legislation in marriage and divorce has been forbidden; appellate jurisdiction has been taken from Senates once possessing it. The British House of Lords retains such jurisdiction, but within it sit the great judges, and the lay lords almost never vote on appeals.
Payment of expenses of members was derived from England, and although abandoned there has continued here. Members of Congress give attendance remote from home, so that they receive salaries rather than compensation. Sums for expenses are allowed in the other American republics, in France, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, chiefly in the lower houses. Some are paid by the local constituency, but this tends to create classes. Representatives to Congress were generally elected at first on the State ticket, and in some States this continued until the Congress in 1872 required district election. The Revised Statutes appoint the day of their election, and require a printed or written ballot.