International law Author:Thomas Baty Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III Penetration (continued) No particular standard of average good treatment can be specified without entering into minute details and laying down ... more »rules which could only prove a constant source of friction. Besides, in states where the rough virtues rather than the polished are cultivated, the standard of foreign comfort would be an unfairly high one. It is little better to lay it down generally that the foreigner must enjoy equal protection with the native. Protection for what ? He comes to the country with a different set of rights and ideas. To enforce recognition of them as they stand would be to enforce upon a nation the adoption of a code of private international law, and private international law of an extraordinary and unheard- of kind. To enforce recognition of them as if they had been created in the new country is artificial, is always dubious, and may be impossible. Nor, again, is it entirely fair that the people of the country, who may have to fight for it, should of necessity enjoy no greater private- law privileges than aliens, who cannot be forced to do so. The net result seems to be that progress must be made gradual. Foreigners originally had no rights. They must now have a definite minimum of rights, definitely protected. The careless assumption of statesmen that there is a common international law of personal and proprietary rights must be examined, and the content of such a common law, if any exists, definitely ascertained. Such works as that of Professor Jitta on Obligations will be found of great use in this connection. It will probably be found that the protection must be limited to securing the commorant foreigner against harm inflicted by the government or its agents (including the legislature) without some ground which, though it may not ...« less