C URRENT LITERATURE.
A NEW MANUAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW.
International Law. Part I., Peace. By John Westlake, K.C., LL.D. (Cambridge University Press. 9s. net.)—We heartily welcome the first instalment of Professor Westlake's new manual of international law, and shall hope when the whole work is before the public to review it at length. Most books on the subject are huge encyclopaedias in which the general reader is lost ; and there was room for a treatise intermediate between the bulky volumes of Wheaton and Phillimore and Mr. F. E. Smith's excellent short sketch. Mr. Hall's work, in many ways the most notable book on the subject, is perhaps a little too advanced and speculative for the man who is not a student or a lawyer. Professor Westlake does not attempt a didactic treatment. "Custom and reason," he says, " are the two sources of international law " ; and he attempts to state the customs and the reasons of the matter without embarking on theories as to sovereignty and ultimate sanctions, or any elaborate history of international practice. It is a book in which the ordinary reader who wishes to be informed on what is every day becoming a more essential part of politics will find all that he wants, and it is also an excellent manual for the University student. This first volume deals with the questions which arise during peace,—the meaning of independent States, the title to territory, jurisdiction, diplomacy, nationality and its rights, and the rules which govern maritime commerce. Professor Westlake is always clear and interesting, and he never forgets the practical bearing of the questions discussed, but illustrates them from events with which every reader is familiar. In a valuable appendix on arbitration he discusses with acumen and moderation the most widely canvassed point in inter- national law.
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