[642] See, for instance, Bluntschli, § 381, and Liszt, § 25.
[644] See the Aliens Act, 1905 (5 Edw. VII. c. 13). See also Henriques, "The Law of Aliens, &c." (1906), and Sibley and Elias, "The Aliens Act, &c." (1906).
[645] The Institute of International Law has studied the matter, and adopted, at its meeting at Geneva in 1892 (see Annuaire, XII. p. 219), a body of forty-one articles concerning the admission and expulsion of aliens; articles 6-13 deal with the admittance of aliens.
Reception of Aliens under conditions.
§ 315. It is obvious that, if a State need not receive aliens at all, it can, on the other hand, receive them under certain conditions only. Thus, for example, Russia does not admit aliens without passports, and if the alien adheres to the Jewish faith he has to submit to a number of special restrictions. Thus, further, during the time Napoleon III. ruled in France, every alien entering French territory from the sea or from neighbouring land was admitted only after having stated his name, nationality, and the place to which he intended to go. Some States, as Switzerland, make a distinction between such aliens as intend to settle down in the country and such as intend only to travel in the country; no alien is allowed to settle in the country without having asked and received a special authorisation on the part of the Government, whereas the country is unconditionally open to all mere travelling aliens.
So-called Right of Asylum.
§ 316. The fact that every State exercises territorial supremacy over all persons on its territory, whether they are its subjects or aliens, excludes the prosecution of aliens thereon by foreign States. Thus, a foreign State is, provisionally at least, an asylum for every individual who, being prosecuted at home, crosses its frontier. In the absence of extradition treaties stipulating the contrary, no State is by International Law obliged to refuse admittance into its territory to such a fugitive or, in case he has been admitted, to expel him or deliver him up to the prosecuting State. On the contrary, States have always upheld their competence to grant asylum if they choose to do so. Now the so-called right of asylum is certainly not a right of the alien to demand that the State into whose territory he has entered with the intention of escaping prosecution from some other State should grant protection and asylum. For such State need not grant them. The so-called right of asylum is nothing but the competence mentioned above of every State, and inferred from its territorial supremacy, to allow a prosecuted alien to enter and to remain on its territory under its protection, and to grant thereby an asylum to him. Such fugitive alien enjoys the hospitality of the State which grants him asylum; but it might be necessary to place him under surveillance, or even to intern him at some place in the interest of the State which is prosecuting him. For it is the duty of every State to prevent individuals living on its territory from endangering the safety of another State. And if a State grants asylum to a prosecuted alien, this duty becomes of special importance.
VII POSITION OF ALIENS AFTER RECEPTION
Vattel, I. § 213, II. §§ 101-115—Hall, §§ 63 and 87—Westlake, I. pp. 211-212, 313-316—Lawrence, §§ 97-98—Phillimore, I. §§ 332-339—Twiss, I. § 163—Taylor, §§ 173, 187, 201-203—Walker, § 19—Wharton, II. §§ 201-205—Wheaton, § 77-82—Moore, IV. §§ 534-549—Bluntschli, §§ 385-393—Hartmann, §§ 84-85—Heffter, § 62—Stoerk in Holtzendorff, II. pp. 637-650—Gareis, § 57—Liszt, § 25—Ullmann, §§ 113-115—Bonfils, Nos. 447-454—Despagnet, Nos. 339-343—Rivier, I. pp. 309-311—Calvo, II. §§ 701-706—Martens, II. § 46—Gaston de Leval, "De la protection des nationaux à l'étranger" (1907)—Wheeler in A.J. III. (1909), pp. 869-884—Proceedings of the American Society of International Law, 1911, pp. 32-65, 150-225.