Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/430

 CAMPBELL », ORAMPTOÎT. 423 �conformable to thîs doctrine, and, by the common consent of the nations, lias been so received.' This is the view of the sub- ject which is expressed by Burge, vol. 1, § 4132, and by Story Confl. Laws, § 103 ; and Sir C. Cresswell, in Simonen V. Mallac, 2 Sw. & Tr. 67, says : ' In contracta the personal competency of individuals to contract bas been held to de- pend on the law of the place where'the contract was made.' If the English reports do net fumish more authority on the point, it may, as Mr. Westlake has said, in his work on pri- vate international law, he referred to its not having been questioned. In the American reports the authorities are numerous, and uniformly support Sir C. CressweU's state- ment of the law which I bave quoted. I cannot but think, therefore, that the leamed lord justices would not desire to base their judgment on so wide a proposition as that which they have laid down with reference to the personal capacity to enter into ail contracts." 20 Albany Law Jour. No. 23, 450. �Upon principle no reason can be alleged why a contract Toid for want of capacity of the party at the place where it is made should be held good because it provides that it shall be performed elsewhere, and nothing can be found in any adju- dication or .text-book to support such a conclusion. It is a Bolecism to speak of that transaction as a contract which cannot be a contract because of the inability of the persons to make it such. �When the authorities which declare that the obligation, interpretation, nature and validity of a contract made in one place, which is to be performed in another, are to be deter- mined by the law of the place of performance, are examined, it will be found that the term "validity" refers to the condi- tions of the contract, and the extent and nature of its obliga- tion, as to which the agreement will be upheld or defeated, according to the sanction or the prohibitions of the law of the place where the parties bave located the transaction. �But if it should be conceded that the law of the place of performance of the contract is the law which determines its validity, in ail respects, the question then arises whether the ����