Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 24.pdf/199

 170

The Green Bag

most virtuous to the most criminal. In the light of altruism the obligations of man to his fellows, of society to the individual, of nation to nation, have been newly interpreted and have fur nished a new standard by which human action is to be judged. The men who are striving to find a practical solution to these problems so vital to the welfare of humanity are engaged in a work of the greatest importance to the present and the future. In the endeavor to reconstruct social and political institutions along the lines of thought now ascendant they are en gaged in a task which demands the exercise of the greatest wisdom; and upon the successes and failures of these constructive thinkers depend in large measure the destinies of humanity. In no sphere of human activity has the present standard of duty become more generally recognized than in the field of international intercourse. Drawn together by improved means of com munication and by. the ever increasing bonds of commerce and industry, the nations of the world have acquired a new sense of mutual obligation, which has become most powerful in directing their relations with one another. Within recent years the great political force in the world was nationalism, selfish, covet ous, and indifferent to the rights of others. The handmaid of nationalism was physical might; its manifestations, military success and conquest. But the present generation has seen the passing of the age of nationalism and the begin ning of the age of internationalism, in which right is placed above benefit, justice above opportunity, peace above the triumphs of war. Internationalism, in the sense in which it is used today, is the application to the relations between nations of the altruistic idea which permeates society.

In view of this change in the motives which inspire governments in their inter course with one another, the exercise of physical force is considered generally unjustifiable and reprehensible. The civilized nations have with unanimous voice avowed it to be their purpose to apply to international controversies those principles of law and equity which have so long been applied to dis putes between individuals and which have given stability to national states and their institutions. Within a state the machinery for the application of justice exists in a highly developed form, but in the community of nations it is but partially developed. Until the means for insuring the uniform appli cation of justice to international con troversies are perfected, governments will continue to maintain armaments with which to protect and enforce their rights. The first step, then, toward the estab lishment of that universal peace which will be the most complete expression of the present altruistic idea in the inter national sphere is the institution of an international judiciary possessing a juris diction over all controversies between nations which have failed of diplomatic adjustment. Without the existence of such a judicature sanctioned by all the great civilized powers and making cer tain that the rights of every nation will be protected and their free exercise guaranteed, the hope of a permanent international peace will be vain. With a keen appreciation that the old method of agreement to submit a dispute between nations to a specially selected tribunal fails to meet the re quirements of the new internationalism, Mr. James Brown Scott has given to the subject of the establishment of a per manent international judiciary with a general jurisdiction much study and