C. M. Dunbar

“ The law of nations is the same, theoretically at least, for all humanity. Private international law, which is a branch of the law of nations, has also a tendency to unity—not that it has for an ideal the uniformity of the law of all portions of the human race; such would be too dreamy an idea. But the rules which serve to solve these conflicts can and should be the same the world over, notwithstanding the diversity of legislation. It is this unity that private international law has sought, and now seeks to establish. ”

“ We employ each day, for the satisfaction of our wants, the products of the most distant countries with as much facility as those of our own soil. Undoubtedly science has done a vast amount in this prodigious development of international intercourse; it is science which has furnished us steam and electricity, for diminishing distances, and bringing peoples into closer relations. Science, it is true, can not do everything ”

“ The first condition necessary, in order that man may perfect himself, is that he enjoy all the natural and legal faculties without which he could not live. The rights of man, therefore, are independent of the diversity of states; they appertain to him simply as a man—that is to say, they belong to him everywhere.
The equality of the foreigner and the citizen is the basis of the private international law: if the foreigner did not enjoy any civil rights, it would not be a question by what law his rights were to be determined ”

“ But the political separation of states has nothing in common with the enjoyment of private rights: if it is impossible for me to be an elector or juror in any one state or country, that is no reason why I should not become proprietor wherever it pleased me to purchase. The exclusion from the enjoyment of political rights should not also necessarily exclude the enjoyment of private rights. ”

“ Thus it is that rights will always vary from one people to another. Sometimes the laws and rights vary in the state itself; there frequently arises a diversity of laws and customs between the different provinces of the same country: as in ancient France, which was formed out of a number of feudal sovereignties, each having its particular law, and giving rise to frequent conflicts between different customs. ”

“ This is not a new dream of perpetual peace, for the true ideal is not peace, but the reign of right; and certainly there is nothing Utopian in the hope that peoples will understand the regulation of interests purely private, and having little or no connection with these greater interests for which, it is to be feared, the resort to arms will always be a painful necessity. ”

“ Private international law, considered as a positive law, reposes on the agreements expressed or implied, which are entered into between sovereign nations. Treaties alone can put an end to the war of conflicting interests and diverse laws. There is but one means of conciliating nations who recognize no superior authority, and that is by way of concurrence of consent. ”

“ A person should enjoy everywhere the same civil rights, since they are an accessory of life. The diversity of states and their constitutions should be no obstacle, for these rights are not due to the foreigner as a citizen; they are due to him as a man, and he is a man everywhere. ”

“ IT is a beautiful theory that man was made for society; but it is an eminently better one that society was made for man. Man was necessarily in existence before society. He contains within himself all the virtues that are an ornament to society, all the elements that strengthen government. And government, and even society itself, however consequential they may appear to the view of the haughty and superficial observer, are, notwithstanding, only means to an end. That end is the betterment of the material, moral, and intellectual conditions of the individuals composing that society and state ”

“ Their first duty is to look to the welfare of their own citizens; yet they should remember that individuals of whatever nationality have natural and inherent rights that should be everywhere recognized, since the exercise of these rights is necessary to existence. It is true that an individual, passing from one state into another, can not carry with him rights not possessed by the citizens of the state he enters, especially if their exercise would interfere with the political or civil rights of the natives. ”

“ The different forms of political institutions in existence are due to the different phases of nature with which different peoples have been surrounded. Even the various forms of religious worship, in most cases, owe their origin to some cause produced by nature, whether of climate, soil, or atmosphere peculiar to the locality of the people professing and practicing those forms of religion. ”

“ The tendency is to create or regulate the relations between civilized countries in such a way that, while the sovereignty and independence of each is guaranteed, the general interests, having a cosmopolitan character, will be found as satisfactory as if they were those of a single state. ”

“ The natural obligation of the head of the family is to provide for the maintenance of those whom he has been instrumental in bringing into the world. And they, on their part, are bound to yield to him the respect naturally due him, and obedience in all matters in which his years of experience render him more fit to judge. ”

“ The primitive and fundamental type of governmental organization and authority is the family. Therein the natural affections cement the compact between the different members of the household. Nature also compels the observance of the different duties due from each member. ”

“ The legal barriers that formerly existed between peoples should be removed at the same time as the natural barriers, and this is really taking place, for, as science progresses and material interests become more developed, the ancient restrictive rules on immigration are successively modified, as also are the regulations on the legal condition of foreigners, on the necessity of passports, etc. ”

“ Since it is a question of sovereignties, they can not, correctly speaking, be called laws; hence the nations could not be bound to recognize a legislative authority higher than their own. The international customs do not hold the place of laws—they hold the place of agreements ”

“ Two countries who wish to regulate their international postal exchanges in a secure way must come to an understanding on the means of transportation they will use, whether it is by railroad, stage, steamers, or sailing-vessels, and what contribution to the expense of carriage will be made by the respective parties to the contract. ”

“ Mancini says there must be treaties in order that the interest of foreigners be maintained and full justice done them on an equal footing with the citizens. If he has not completely succeeded in his mission, it is because the times are not ripe for the realization of his ideas. ”

“ Can a man exercise these everywhere, or are they limited to the state in which he was born? Man is not an incorporeal hereditament, attached to the soil on which he was born, but is a citizen of the world ”

“ Such is the primitive form of government—one established by nature itself. Individuals unite into families, families into clans, clans into villages, villages into provinces, and these into states. All formations subsequent to that of the family are artificial ”

“ It is not the writer's intention to enter here into an extensive view or review of the theory of the social compact, or into a discussion of its fallacy or plausibility; suffice it to say that it illustrates the principle that the people are the source of governmental authority—a principle that, at least, is recognized by all well-informed Americans. ”

“ For this society was formed, and for this it is maintained. To protect the individual in his pursuit of happiness, governments were instituted, and when they no longer subserve that chief end they become obsolete. ”

“ The merchants of New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago, and even San Francisco, negotiate as easily with the merchants of Paris, London, or Liverpool as with those of Buffalo, Philadelphia, or New Orleans. ”

“ The Union is not limited to the countries signing the Berne treaty. That treaty provided for the accession of new members; and since 1874 other nations than the original contracting parties have joined it, and in the near future we may see a universal postal association, embracing the entire world. ”

“ A letter may have to traverse many countries to arrive at its destination: thus, a letter addressed from Lisbon to the Hague passes through Spain, France, and Belgium; it has three intermediate countries to traverse. Therefore, regulations must be made between the services of direct exchange and those of transit. By transit we mean the countries traversed; thus, the French transit is necessary to communicate between the United States and Italy, under present regulations. ”