CALIFORNIA

THE FIRST BOOK OF

WORLD LAW

CHAPTER I

BEGINNINGS OF WORLD ORGANIZATION

This book follows logically the author's little book entitled “World Organization." In that book demonstration was made of the existence of an unwritten world constitution, with mighty forces operating upon all parts of the human race. Already the nations have begun, officially, by duly appointed delegates, to express this world constitution. Already so many of the nations that they may reasonably be regarded as representatives of the human race have joined in the formation of a Declaration of Rights and Relations pertaining to the entire human race as a unit. Already the records of the world, as shown in "World Organization," contain mention of action which implies, not in the exact words, yet in the exact sense, recognition of the following articles of such a Declaration :

ART. I. All men are kindred; therefore the nations must be humane.

ART. II. All men are social; therefore intercommunication must be universal, reliable, and inexpensive.

ART. III. Each part of the world needs all the other parts; unimpeded exchange of the world's goods promotes world prosperity; therefore obstacles to such exchange must be removed.

ART. IV. Mankind advances most rapidly by coöperation; therefore national pride and prejudice must be discarded in order that nations may work together. ART. V. World movements must be regulated by world intelligence; therefore the will of the whole must be supreme over all the parts.

ART. VI. Every part of mankind is of right entitled to freedom; therefore every power which attempts to enslave men must be destroyed.

ART. VII. The illness of one is the peril of all; therefore all must be vigilant for the health of each and of all.

ART. VIII. Mankind is intellectual and moral, not brutal; therefore differences between nations must be settled by reason and right, not by force.

Further than this, demonstration has also been made that the nations have begun, officially, by duly accredited delegates, the formation of that part of the world constitution which relates to the frame of government. In substance, though not in these exact words, the nations have already adopted these three articles: (1) there shall be a legislative department; (2) there shall be a judicial department; (3) there shall be an executive department.

Next in order, historically, from this point, must come the collection of the legislation already accomplished by the will of the world, or the First Book of World Law. For more than a generation true world law has been growing. In some instances, conspicuously in the case of the Universal Postal Union, the will of all the world has found official expression. In most instances the will has been only that of the leading nations of the world. In the case of the part, the process has been the same as in the case of the whole. Since the process is in its early stages of development, and since it is the same in method for the part as for the whole, it is reasonable to include in the body of world law certain propositions which have been affirmed officially by groups of the principal nations, but not by all nations.

Within a comparatively short time the organization of all mankind into a political unit has advanced rapidly. During the few years of the present century this advance has been so marked as to be highly encouraging to those who have been promoting it directly. By those who made the beginnings of true world legislation, the quality of their memorable service does not seem to have been understood. Certainly the world did not, at the time, appreciate the historic importance or character of their action in nourishing the germs of true world legislation, meaning by world legislation the official expression of the will of the nations in definite form. But now that world legislation has undoubtedly been enacted, and now that the world legislature, in germ, is already here, rising into the self-consciousness of mankind as an actual existence, we can look back and see certain international gatherings in a very different light from that in which they appeared to the participants and spectators. They did not know when the dawn of the new era began out of the night of the past; but we, in the sure light of the present, which they did not enjoy, can not only say positively that the light now shines, but that certain

phenomena of the past, not rightly understood then, were certainly rays of the dawn, prophetic of the noonday glow of the accomplished political unity of all the nations of mankind.

It is right and reasonable to say that the world legislature is here, because the will of all the world has been expressed by the means of the Hague conferences in formulating and submitting propositions which have been ratified by the nations. Those ratified propositions are the will of the world, officially and formally expressed through the different nations. In the recommendation by the Second Hague Conference that a third be called, there was in the consciousness of those official representatives of all the nations of the world a perception that they were promoting a mighty world movement which was sweeping all the nations of the earth into a political unity. The First Hague Conference was called primarily to deal with the armaments of the nations. The second was called primarily to settle questions left unsettled by the first. The third was recommended to be called primarily because of the mighty world impulse, plainly felt by the second conference, toward organizing the world and toward the political unity of the race.

With this dawn of the self-consciousness of the race a new era in the world's history began. It is not too much to affirm that this new era is the most important political era the human race has ever seen. These two gatherings at The Hague in 1899 and 1907 are now seen to have been true germs of the legislative department of the world. Yet they had their precedents, their roots, in many more or less similar gatherings before then, so that it is impossible to say that the beginning of the movement had its time and place here or there, otherwise than in the very nature of the human race as a unit from the beginning of its existence.

Frederick W. Holls, a delegate from the United States to the Hague peace conference of 1899, in his book, "The Peace Conference at The Hague," says (p. 352):

The gathering at The Hague was the lineal descendant, so to speak, not of the innumerable peace congresses held in various quarters of the globe, but of the diplomatic assemblies called for the purpose of solving a present problem and of furnishing guarantees, more or less permanent, for peace between the Powers represented, beginning with the conferences of Münster and Osnabrück in 1648, including those of Utrecht in 1713, of Paris in 1763, and, above all, the Congress

of Vienna in 1815, and that of Berlin in 1878. The vital distinction between these gatherings and the peace conference at The Hague is that all of the former were held at the end of a period of warfare, and their first important object was to restore peace between actual belligerents; whereas the peace conference was the first diplomatic gathering called to discuss guarantees of peace, without reference to any particular war, — past, present, or prospective.

Only one qualification is to be made upon this judgment, — that it does not go far enough back for the beginning of the series. To the trained mind of Mr. Holls there was such similarity of quality between the gatherings which made the treaties of Westphalia, Utrecht, and Paris, and the Hague conference of 1899, that they belong in the same class. He is clearly right from one point of view, but that point hardly rises to the height of world legislation. Those early gatherings, making treaties for the peace of Europe, were merely preparing the road for the march of the body of world legislators who were destined, in the fullness of time, to enjoy the fruit of their earlier wisdom and to lead the way to still higher international action.

Before taking up the evolution of the world will which has already become world law through the official action of the nations, it is pertinent, for the sake of noting how the organized political unity of the world is advancing, to add that the germ of a true world judiciary department is found in the recommendation for an international prize court, which was submitted to the nations by the second conference at The Hague, Still further, several distinct germs of the world executive department are already in active existence. Oldest and best of illustrations is that of the permanent secretary at Berne of the Universal Postal Union. This and other executive officers are not of a high grade, but they are truly executive. Their offices were established by world legislation, and they are genuine world executive officers. These developments show that the three necessary departments of all civilized governments the legislative, the executive, and the judicial are already actually existent or close at hand.

An excellent bird's-eye view of the official relations of nations to each other is gained by looking over the list of international documents put forth by the nations separately and collectively. One list, available for this writing, the collection of G. F. de Martens, opens the vista of the past back to the year 1494, when was made a treaty between Spain and Portugal concerning their discoveries in