of laws. In international matters, the doctrine treats of the opposition between the laws of different countries, where the subjects of one country may have acquired rights, and become subject to duties, within the jurisdiction of another country." 211 As a term of art, conflict of laws includes the deciding which law is, in such cases, to have superiority. It, also, includes cases where there is no opposition between two systems of law, but where the question is how much force may be allowed to a foreign law with reference to which an act has been done, either directly or by legal implication, in the absence of any domestic law exclusively applicable to 213 The laws of every state affect and bind directly all property, real or personal, situated within its territory, all contracts made and acts done, and all persons resident within its jurisdiction, and are supreme within its limits by virtue of its sovereignty." Whatever force and obligation the laws of one country have in another depend upon the laws and municipal regulations of the latter, that is, upon its own proper jurisprudence and polity, and upon its own express or tacit consent." 214 77. When a statute or the common law of a country forbids the recognition of the foreign law, the latter is of no force in that country; when the recognition of the foreign law is neither forbidden nor permitted by either the statute or common law, the question is, which of the conflicting laws (if they do conflict) is to have effect." 215 As between nations and states, the laws of one will be recognized and executed in another, where the rights of individuals are concerned, where those laws are not prejudicial or oppressive to the rights and interests of the state or nations recognizing them." This practice is called comity of nations, and will not be conceded when the laws of 2112 Kent's Comm. 110. 2121 Bouv. Law Dict. (Rawle's Ed.) 392. 2137 Wall. (U. S.) 151 (1868). 214 Huberus, liber 1, title 3, Sec. 2. 215 Story Confl. L. 23. 216 13 Pet. (U. S.) 519, 589 (1839). the foreign state or nation are contrary to its policy or prejudicial to its interests." 217 The rules governing the conflict of laws in matters of contract, property, negotiable instruments, and other subjects treated herein, are considered under their appropriate titles. 217 37 Mo. 350, 354 (1866); 142 Mass. 53 (1886). THE LAW OF PERSONAL RIGHTS INTRODUCTION 1. All rights which appertain to man are of one of two classes, natural rights or acquired rights. The former belong originally and essentially to man, such as are inherent in his nature, and which he enjoys as man independent of any particular act on his side. The latter are those which are owing to his own procurement. The right of providing for one's preservation is of the one class; sovereignty, or the right of commanding, or the right of property, is of the other class.' The term man, in its extended sense, includes all human beings, or any human being, whether male or female; mankind, generally, of whatever sex, or whether adults or children. But where, by any constitutional or statute law, the voting franchise is given to a man, or male, possessing the necessary qualifications, man is used in the ordinary or strict sense and does not include woman. PERSONS 2. The word person, ordinarily in legal signification, includes both sexes.' Under the phrase "every person of full age," in a statute, women are comprised. The term personal, as applied to rights, such as security, liberty, and property, is taken as meaning mankind generally. Persons are natural or artificial. 3. Natural persons are such as the God of nature formed all human beings. Artificial persons are such as 111 Ark. 519 (1851). 274 Ga. 795 (1885). 31 Black. Comm. 123. For notice of copyright, see page immediately following the title page are created by human laws for the purpose of society and government; such as bodies politic, or corporations, which derive their existence from legislation. Another division of natural persons is into public and private. 4. Public persons are those occupying official public offices; all others are private persons. Private persons are subdivided into natives and aliens. A native is a person born within the jurisdiction and allegiance of a given country, or government. An alien is one who resides in one country but who owes allegiance to a foreign country, or government; an unnaturalized resident foreigner. 5. Citizens and Aliens. —A citizen is one who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it; opposed to alien. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." A person cannot be a citizen of a state without being a citizen of the United States; but one may be a citizen of the United States without being a citizen of any particular state, as, for instance, an inhabitant of the District of Columbia.' As a rule, however, citizenship in a state consists of citizenship of the United States with a fixed abode in the state. The right to vote, or to hold office, is not a test of citizenship, for minors and women are commonly citizens without those rights, and there are cases where aliens may hold office. In the United States and in England, the children of aliens born in either country, other than those of foreign ambassadors, are native-born citizens; in France, such children are aliens. 6. An alien, while in the United States, is under its protection, and is permitted to trade and conduct business, also, to sue and to be sued, and, according to the later statutes, to hold property both real and personal in the same manner as a 494 U. S. 315 (1876). 5 Stand. Dict. 6 Const. U. S., Amendt. XIV. native; he is not, however, permitted to hold any public office, nor is he generally permitted to vote; but in some states, persons who have declared their intentions to become citizens are eligible to elective offices. A state cannot make a subject of a foreign government a citizen of the United States. That can only be done in the manner provided by the naturalization laws of congress." Other divisions of persons are adults and infants, master and servant (which are treated under their appropriate titles), and sane and insane. 7. Sane and Insane Persons. – A sane person is one who has sound mind, memory, and understanding. Sanity is the reverse of insanity; the sanity of a person is always presumed." Insane persons are those of an unsound or deranged mind. The word insane is not confined in its application to persons who are wholly without understanding. It includes all persons who are non compos mentis (not of sound mind, memory, or understanding), which is the general term including idiocy, lunacy, and other madness, without regard to the cause or duration of the malady." A lunatic is a person who has possessed reason but has lost it through disease, grief, or other cause; one whose unsoundness of mind is acquired, not congenital, as distinguished from an idiot." An idiot is one who has been without understanding from his nativity; total idiocy is total fatuity from birth." The extent to which insane persons may enjoy their natural or acquired rights, or may contract, will be shown in the treatment of the various subjects in this Course." In the present inquiry, it is intended merely to explain their classification. 830 Cal. 185 (1866). 94 Dill. (U. S.) 425 (1876). 10 See The Law of Parent and Child and 97 1. 338 (1881). 13 Cent. Dict. 14 63 Iowa 152 (1885); 2 Phill. Eccl. (Eng.) 69 (1812). 15 See The Law of Contracts, The Law of Commercial Paper, and other subjects. |