Jahrbuch des Volkerrechts
Bibliographic Details
Munich and Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. 1913
Book Review
The first issue of the Jahrbuch des Volkerrechts is a formidable, though not a forbidding, volume, but it is one which no person interested in international law and international relations can afford to overlook. It has a separate and distinct place on the table of the man of affairs, as well as of the expert, because it gives a survey of international development from September, 1911, to August, 1912. It does not compete with journals of international law, nor with accounts of the year's happenings, in so far as do they concern international relations, to be found in encyclopedias.
Introduction to Jahrbuch des Volkerrechts
It gives the texts of the most important documents bearing upoil international relations, uising for this purpose the language of the original document, be it in French, German, Italian, Spanish, or English. This alone would make the work valuable as a book of reference, but its usefulness does not stop here. It has separate articles and reports on the important events and questions of the year written by persons who can justly be called specialists on the different subjects, reports upon the events which have taken place in the individual countries, and reports on congresses and conferences. It has a section devoted to the signing and ratification of international agreements, a section devoted to subjects such as the proposed Academy at The Hague, the preparations for the Third Hague Conference, and the Pan-American movement, to mention only a few subjects which may be considered to be timely or to have a general interest. It has a bibliography and it ends with an index. The question must be unimportant which this volume does not discuss, and no well informed reader can consult it without finding what he seeks, unless the subject is beyond the scope of the volume. In a word, the work is indispensable, and Messrs. Niemeyer and Strupp are to be congratulated upon having conceived the idea and upon their patience and industry in adequately carrying it out.
Context of Jahrbuch des Volkerrechts
It has been stated that important documents are printed in various foreign languages with which the reader and student are supposed to be familiar. The same thing applies to the articles and reports. German, French and English are used, although, so far as the reviewer can discover, there is no Spanish article, and the contributions of Italian writers have been translated into German. This, of course, enables readers of different nationalities to use the volume and makes it appeal to a wider public as a book of reference. The editors recognize, of course, that certain subjects of a political nature will naturally betray the sympathy and bias of the writer with an action or policy with which his country is concerned. This cannot be avoided, but the editors have supplied a corrective. Thus, to cite an example or two, the Panama Canal question is treated by an American writer, who defends the action of the United States, but it is followed by an article from an English writer who explains and justifies the English point of view. In the same way, the Morocco question is treated by a French writer and the corrective is supplied by an article from the pen of one of the editors, Dr. Niemeyer.
Thesis Statement
As the Jahrbuchs de Viikerrechts is calculated to disseminate correct views of international law and international relations, the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW welcomes its publication and wishes its editors and publishers success in their great and beneficent under taking.
Book Review Details
This legal book review was published in:
The American Journal of International Law,Vol. 8, No. 1 (Jan., 1914), pp. 180-182Published