422
The Green Bag
the benefits of municipal home rule being sufficiently obvious without argu ment. The examination of the principles
applied in successfully governed Euro pean cities is rather superficial, but the
book makes some sound and practical suggestions.
The author's conclusions,
in fact, are often better than the grounds assigned for them, and his book is of
little value as a scientific document. He sets out with the rather ambitious aim of proving that the faults of muni
facts. Citations are frequent, and there is a useful bibliography. THE BINDING FORCE OF INTER NATIONAL LAW The Binding Force of International Law. By A. Pearce Higgins. M.A.. LL.D., of Lincoln's Inn. Barrister-at-Law, Lecturer in Clare Collcgt. Cam bridge. Lecturer on Public International Law at the London School of Economics and the Royal Naval War College. University Press, Cambridge. and G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York. Pp. 48. (50 cts. ad.)
I-IIS brochure contains the inaugural lecture delivered by awell-known
cipal government, in the United States.
English scholar in connection with the
are due rather to failure to apply the principles underlying successful national and state government than to more deep-seated difliculties, and it cannot be said that he succeeds in proving this, or that the problem of good city government is as free from intricacy as
opening of a course in international
he assumes.
Professor Munro's book is a pains taking and thorough account of muni cipal government in France, Prussia and England, describing with considerable
law at the London School of Economics last autumn. In general, it is a discus
sion of the basis of international law and a reply to the arguments that such
law has no
binding
sanction,
in which the subject of intema tional arbitration is considered in the light of recent developments in international affairs.
The writer does
not weaken his argument by claiming too much; he recognizes that existing
detail the systems of those countries
international law largely partakes of
and contrasting, wherever possible, their structure and functions with those of the United States. While the work does
character, but that it is gradually, by the process of definition by treaties
not pretend to be exhaustive, but aims
only to serve as an introduction to fuller study of the subject, it is sufii ciently elaborate to win approval for its scholarly and serviceable qualities. Professor Munro is concerned rather with structure and administration than
with functions of local government, and in its field his treatise is the most com plete and instructive accessible to Ameri
can readers.
A conspicuous merit is
found in his use of the comparative method, and the discussions of the
workings of the various systems are so full as to give the reader something more satisfying than a bare statement of
a customary rather than of a positive
and international conferences, acquiring more and more of the attributes of positive law. Moreover, there is suffi cient evidence of its binding power in the fact that its mandates are re
spected by nations entering upon war, and there are numerous indications of the latent yet commanding force
of international public opinion. The eminently sane view is expressed that while the settlement of international questions by the application of the rules of law will tend to reduce the possibility of war, "even this advance in civiliza
tion will not necessarily mean
the
advent of an era of perpetual peace."
