The Olivart Collection land-dweller as if it occurred in the depths of darkest Africa, if there is yet such a place. We read of a wreck at sea •—• we who have no maritime invest ments of loved ones or money — and by no possible method of philosophy can we conjure up a legal interest in the incident. Even if a wreck is driven ashore on adjacent property, the cir cumstance does not set us to figuring how we can protect our own land from similar molestation. For nature has decreed that there shall be a shore which is partly taken by the sea daily through the action of the tides, and we have re moved our land interests invariably far enough away from the reach of the waters not to be closely concerned with the beach. In other words, the beach or shore is a natural neutral zone, in evitably dividing the sea from the land. All aircraft operate above, not at the side of, the land. Except over water,
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no aviator can even throw out ballast without it reaching somebody's property, and there is no neutral zone of beach to receive it, or act as a buffer between the two elements. The sea-wreck affects only the individuals who have entrusted persons or cargo to the vessel; it sinks in a waste of water where no man has an interest. The aerial wreck will fall upon occupied territory, will affect those landholders who have no specific interest in the machine or its cargo. This difference must be clearly kept in mind, and I believe is of sufficient fundamental importance to be the decid ing factor in the conclusion which shall be legally drawn as to the freedom or sovereignty of the air space. The air is an appanage indivisible from the earth, and any use made of it should be predicated upon legal theory that recognizes that fact.
Cambridge, Mass.
The Acquisition of the Olivart Collection By Harvard Law School THE Harvard Law School is most The Marquis is an authority on inter fortunate in the acquisition of the national law, vice-president of the Inter largest private library of international national Congress, a former head of the law in the world, the collection of the University of Law in Madrid and the Marquis de Olivart, numbering 60,000 major domo of the court of King volumes. The library comprises up Alphonso. He visited this country re ward of 15,000 titles. It is printed in cently, and was delighted with the new every modern language, and there are home of his books, which came over in 1,550 volumes in Latin, some of them February. dating back to the fifteenth century. The Marquis, on his visit to Washing There are also a number of extremely ton, was banqueted by the American rare and limited editions. The collec members of the International Law Con tion has been pronounced by competent gress with two other eminent foreign authorities the most valuable of its jurists, Professor Lange of Christiana, kind in the world. Norway, and Professor Fiore of Florence.
