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NUMBER 3, JULY, 1909

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INTERNATIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE LAW AND

NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY

The conception of a law common to the entire civilized world has received a new content and a practical interpretation through the recent development of international unions. The numerous private unions and associations for international purposes constitute a spontaneous grouping of men throughout the world who are interested in certain lines of enterprise industrial, political, or scientific — which are not limited by national boundaries, but have the whole world for their field of action. The number of such associations already created is indeed surprising. Nearly every type of social effort for the promotion of the broader interests of mankind has been organized in this manner, so that there are literally hundreds of international unions and associations. These bodies hold periodical conferences for the interchange of opinions and the comparison of results, and in many cases they have established permanent bureaus or offices.

1

The public unions which have been formed by the action of states, and which are now operating as public agencies of international interests, indicate the extent to which the national authorities have come to realize the importance of interests and activities that transcend in their operations the boundaries of the national state. There are over thirty of such unions, most of them endowed with permanent organs of administration, which enable them to fulfill, even though only in a rudimentary way, the three classic functions of government the legislative, executive, and judicial. The interests which they represent and administer can be understood only when we consider the human world as a totality of interrelated forces and activities. From this point of view any other organization that might be given them would be defective in point of extent and efficiency.

1 The number of international congresses held in the year 1906 was at least one hundred and sixty. See lists in the Annuaire de la vie internationale, 1906.

When any social or economic interest has assumed the character of a world-wide relation, when its activities in order to succeed must rest on the experience of all mankind, and must extend their operations over numerous national territories, then such an interest can be effectively regulated only upon a world-wide basis. The legal aspects of its organization and action can be expressed only in the terms of a law enacted from the point of view of international relations, rather than resting upon the experience and policy of any national state. The world law which is thus created is not merely an intellectual product such as the natural law of the older jurisprudence. Quite the contrary, it is the legal expression of positive interests and activities that have already developed in the life of the world, that are expressing themselves in action, and are therefore entitled to have their relations expressed also in juristic form. A law of this kind, while aiming at universality, will strive to avoid purely theoretical construction and will aim to base itself upon ascertained needs and actual experience.

When the principal interests that have already received an international organization are passed in review, it is not difficult to recognize in them those characteristics which make them essentially international. It is an often-repeated saying that the world at the present time stands in the sign of communication. The ideal of the civilized world with respect to economic relations is that the entire surface of the globe should be rendered readily accessible to the enterprise of all the world, and that rapid and uninterrupted communication should make possible a uniform management and control of the natural resources which humanity has inherited. The demands thus made upon international policies have their material support in the great advances recently achieved in the practical sciences and arts of communication. But in order that the greatest advantage may be gained by mankind from these inventions, a liberal character should be imparted to legislation. We need a uniform law of transportation by land and sea in order that the efficiency of communication may not be impaired by unnecessary local differences of regulation. Scientific jurisprudence has directed itself to the task of gradually unifying the principles of maritime law and restoring its character of a

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