Qualification of Candidates. No State obliged to admit III APPOINTMENT OF CONSULS Hall, § 105-Phillimore, ii. § 250-Halleck, i. p. 398-Moore, v. §§ 697-700 § 424. International Law has no rules in regard to the qualifications of an individual whom a State can appoint consul. Many States, however, by their Municipal Law require certain qualifications in professional consuls. The question whether female consuls could be appointed cannot be answered in the negative; but, on the other hand, no State is obliged to grant them the exequatur, and many States would at present certainly refuse it. § 425. According to International Law a State is not obliged to admit any consuls. But the commercial Consuls. interests of all States are so powerful, that in practice every State must admit consuls of foreign Powers; for a State which refused would in its turn not be allowed to have its own consuls abroad. Commercial and consular treaties stipulate, as a rule, that the contracting States shall have the right to appoint consuls in all those parts of each other's country in which consuls of third States are already or may in future be admitted. Consequently a State cannot refuse admittance to a consul of one State for a certain district if it admits a consul of another State. But as long as a State has not admitted the consul of any State for any particular district, it can refuse to admit the consuls of all. Thus, for instance, Russia refused for a long time for political reasons to admit consuls in Warsaw, now capital of Poland. Kind of Consuls. § 426. There is no doubt that it is within the com- What petence of every full sovereign State to appoint consuls. States can As regards not-full sovereign States, everything depends appoint upon the special case. As foreign States can appoint consuls in States under suzerainty, it cannot be doubted that, provided the contrary is not specially stipulated between the vassal and the suzerain State, and provided the vassal State is not one which has no position within the Family of Nations,1 a vassal State is, in its turn, competent to appoint consuls in foreign States. In regard to member-States of a Federal State, it is the constitution of the Federal State which settles the question. Thus, according to the constitution of Germany, as it was before the World War, the Federal State was exclusively competent to appoint consuls, in contradistinction to diplomatic envoys who might be sent and received by every member-State of the German Empire. ment and tance. § 427. Consuls are appointed through a patent or Mode of commission, the so-called Lettre de provision, of the Appoint State whose consular office they are intended to ad- of Admitminister. Vice-consuls are sometimes, and agents-consular are always, appointed by the consul, subject to the approval of the home State. Admittance of consuls takes place through the grant of the so-called exequatur by the head of the admitting State. The diplomatic envoy of the appointing State hands the patent of the appointed consul to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs for communication to the head of the State, and the exequatur is given, either in a special document, or by means of the word exequatur written across the patent. But the exequatur can be refused for personal reasons. Thus, in 1869 England refused the exequatur to an Irish 1 See above § 91. 2 That, in case a consul is appointed for a State which is under the protectorate of another, it is within the competence of the latter Appointment of Consuls man named Haggerty, who was naturalised in the United States and appointed American consul for Glasgow. And the exequatur can be withdrawn for personal reasons at any moment. Thus, in 1834 France withdrew it from the Prussian consul at Bayonne for having helped in getting supplies of arms into Spain for the Carlists. § 428. As the appointment of consuls takes place in the interests of commerce, industry, and navigation, includes and has merely local importance without political conRecognition. sequences, it is maintained 1 that a State does not indirectly recognise a newly created State merely by appointing a consul to a district in it. This opinion, however, does not agree with the facts of international life. Since no consul can exercise his functions before he has handed over his patent to the local State, and has received its exequatur, it is evident that thereby the appointing State enters into such formal intercourse with the admitting State as indirectly 2 involves recognition. But it is only if consuls are formally appointed and formally receive the exequatur on the part of the receiving State, that indirect recognition is involved. If, on the other hand, no formal 3 appointment is made, and no formal exequatur is asked for and received, foreign individuals may, with the consent of the local State, in fact exercise the functions of consuls without recognition following therefrom. Such individuals are not really consuls, although the local State allows them, for political reasons, to exercise consular functions. 1 Hall, §§ 26* and 105, and Moore, i. § 72. 2 See above, § 72. 3 The case mentioned by Hall, § 26*, of Great Britain appointing, in 1823, consuls to the South American republics, without gazetting the various consuls and-as must be presumed-without the individuals concerned asking formally for the exequatur of the various South American States, would seem to be a case of informal appointment. IV FUNCTIONS OF CONSULS Hall, § 105-Phillimore, ii. §§ 257-260-Taylor, § 327-Halleck, i. pp. 408412-Moore, v. §§ 717-731-Hershey, No. 286- Ullmann, § 61Bulmerincq in Holtzendorff, iii. pp. 738-753-Rivier, i. § 42-Calvo, iii. §§ 1421-1429-Bonfils, Nos. 762-771-Pradier-Fodéré, iv. §§ 2069-2113Fiore, ii. Nos. 1184-1186-Martens, ii. § 23-Stowell, Le Consul, pp. 15-136. sular § 429. Although consuls are appointed chiefly in On Conthe interests of commerce, industry, and navigation, Fune they are also charged with various functions for other tions in general. purposes. Custom, commercial and consular treaties, Municipal Laws, and Municipal Consular Instructions prescribe detailed rules in regard to these functions. They may be grouped under the heads of promotion of commerce and industry, supervision of navigation, protection, notarial functions. tion of dustry. § 430. As consuls are appointed in the interests of Promocommerce and industry, they must be allowed by the Commerce receiving State to watch over the execution of the com- and Inmercial treaties of their home State, to send reports to the latter in regard to everything which can influence the development of its commerce and industry, and to give information to merchants and manufacturers of the appointing State necessary for the protection of their commercial interests. Municipal Laws of the several States and their Consular Instructions comprise detailed rules on these consular functions, which are of the greatest importance.. Consular reports and consular information to members of the commercial world have rendered and render valuable assistance to the development of the commerce and industry of their home States. § 431. Another task of consuls consists in supervising vision of tion. Super- the navigation of the appointing State. A consul at a Naviga- port must be allowed to keep his eye on all merchantmen sailing under the flag of his home State which enter the port, to control and legalise their ship's papers, to inspect them on their arrival and departure, and to settle disputes between the master and crew or the passengers. He assists sailors in distress, undertakes the sending home of shipwrecked crews and passengers, and attests averages. It is neither necessary, nor possible, to enumerate all the duties and powers of consuls in regard to supervision of navigation. It should, however, be added that consuls must, upon the request of the commander, assist in every possible way any public vessel of their home State which enters their port; but they have no power of supervision over them. Protec tion. § 432. In exercising the protection which they must be allowed by the receiving State to provide for subjects of the appointing State, consuls fulfil a very important task. For that purpose they keep a register, in which these subjects can have their names and addresses recorded. Consuls make out passports, and they have to render certain assistance and help to paupers and the sick, and to litigants before the courts. If a foreign subject is wronged by the local authorities, his consul has to give him advice and help, and has eventually to interfere on his behalf. If a foreigner dies, his consul may be approached for securing his property, and for rendering all kind of assistance and help to the family of the deceased. As a rule, a consul exercises protective functions over subjects of the appointing State only; but the latter may charge him with the protection of subjects of other States which have not nominated a consul for his district. § 433. Very important are the notarial and similar functions with which consuls are charged. They attest |