THE INTERNATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION. By Dr. Rokuichiro Masujima, Member of the I stand before you, having come all the way over sea and over land to appear as a missionary of justice and peace, proposed to be secured under the banner of the International Bar Association, which, although organized in the Far East, aims to become a world agent of progress and so seeks to make sure of its success by securing the co-operation in its membership of the senior and honored. Bar Associations of the Occident. Through the kindness of a friend of mine there has been recently placed in the hands of each member of this Association a printed copy of some remarks which I addressed to the American Bar Association at its last annual meeting, upon "The International Bar Association -Its Aims and Its Opportunities, and what I then said I need not now repeat. Please refer to this address, copies of which are here at your service. To give a brief history of the International Bar Association to the present time, the idea was first suggested by the Philippine Bar Association, at its annual meeting in 1919, that an Oriental Bar Association be formed. This proposal was taken home by Chinese and Japanese delegates, with the understanding that the Japan Bar Association would or might sponsor the scheme. In April, 1920, the International Bar Association with its present all embracing name and character was inaugurated in Tokyo at the same time that we celebrated there the 25th anniversary of the Japan Bar Association. It is a happy coincidence that the project was thus originated in an American jurisdiction because the institution of the Bar Association as an active body of lawyers is peculiarly American, and so the honor of the conception should be shared by the entire American Bar of which the Philippine Bar forms a part. The first fully and duly organized general meeting of the International Bar Association took place under the auspices of our Chinese brethren in Peking last October. The Chinese, Japanese and Philippine Bar Associations took part as members, and some American and Russian lawyers from Shanghai and Harbin attended as guests. The programme of the meeting laid out by the Chinese Bar Association was most admirable, showing real appreciation of the importance of the International Bar Association, an appreciation felt not only by its members who assembled from the far and many provinces of that vast and ancient country, but also by the government and other public bodies in Peking. The occasion demonstrated clearly that the Association was fully understood to be a lofty and inspiring instrument for the promotion of peace and human brotherhood, whose mission it was to build up a commonly accepted international standard of justice. We should congratulate the Association that it thus celebrated its first meeting in the capital of China, whose old civilization and institutions are not to be ignored in any undertaking for the amelioration of human conditions. The International Bar Association has received expressions of interest and promises of co-operation. C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, Advocate General of Madras, President of "All India Lawyers' Conference," wrote to us: "All India Lawyers' Conference would gladly apply for its membership in the International Bar Association as all of us in India feel that such Association would not only bring the East and the West together, but would further the cause of justice and the interests of civilization at large." The Right Honorable Sir John A. Simon, K. C., former Attorney General of England, whom all of you who were at Cincinnati will remember, has promised me to lend his great assistance towards securing the practical sympathy of the General Council of the Bar and the Incorporated Law Society of England. Mr. Grist of the Hongkong Bar has promised to interest his brethren there. I have arranged to approach the Bar of the Australian Commonwealth. I have obtained some assistance for enlisting the membership of the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Bar, and the Bar of Finland and Poland. The American and Canadian Bar Associations, which I came over to address last summer, have under consideration the question of their enrollment with us. The French Bar Association has been recently formed and steps have been taken to secure its membership in the International Bar Association. Last year, at the meeting of the American Bar Association, I said that it was the object of the International Bar Association to promote justice by the co-operation of the members of the Bar throughout the world, so that permanent peace may be obtained among men by the power of a commonly accepted international standard of justice; that the International Bar Association was the Empire of Law composed of Bar Associations, Occidental and Oriental, and maintained as a purely non-political, democratic body bound together by the free will of individual members for the purpose of building up an international standard of justice, each member association having no selfish interests of its own or for its members collectively, and all members being equal, and not differentiated by reason of size, each member Association having only one vote; that the Association should be a guardian of justice as manifested in International Law, in its new and most advanced form, clothed with more reality and authority in order to impress a deeper sense of obligation into the minds of nations, so that international justice shall become more certain and international peace more secure; that the Bar is the real power and authority to dietate and administer justice at the permanent International Court to be organized under the League of Nations, and for that purpose the Bar of the world should resolve to have its voice heard and its influence felt in establishing and maintaining justice among nations; and that those regions of the globe in which the Association may enter upon its work are where the people have modern systems of judicial administration with such matured jurisprudence as serves its purpose and a strong Bar to maintain its validity and independence; and last but not least, that the Common. Law is the real system of living jurisprudence which can and should lead the Bar of the World in the mission of the International Bar Association. I have called the International Bar Association the Empire of Law, in order so to signify a world organization constituted by the members of the Bar, through whose power and influence is to be demonstrated the authority of International Law and is to be impressed upon the minds of nations the real sense of International obligations founded on the new and most advanced principles, as regulated by the commonly accepted standard of justice. This standard of justice, the members of the Bar throughout the world shall elaborate and define in order to serve the special purpose of directing the pacific settlement of international disputes. The universal conscience of nations is to be discovered in the common principles of justice which the march of modern progress makes it possible to observe in international intercourse. Our fundamental duty must be to enforce true respect for the provisions of International Law and to nurse the growth of common understanding, real knowledge and mutual confidence among nations. The International Bar Association shall be the fountain of sound opinion, conceded to be such by the judgment of nations and the impartial opinion of the Bar. No other body of men can define and cultivate impartial judgment so well as the Bar. Their decision should be unbiased because founded upon fact and reason as controlled by judicial minds and matured experience. No diplomat can ever forget the interest of his State and the economist is never free from local prejudice. What other body of men so well qualified by education, culture and experience to conduct work of such judicial character as is proposed by the International Bar Association, with all the fairness and deep learning peculiar to lawyers, who are the real statesmen of human affairs as has been proved ever since lawyers framed the grand Constitution of the United States? The International Bar Association shall be the temple of justice into which all nations may be gathered to be taught the lessons required for cultivating the sense of justice by moral suasion and inculcation-and, if need be as sometimes must, by mild yet legitimate compulsion, so that common understanding, real knowledge and mutual confidence may prevail in the society of nations. The mistake shall not be made of attributing to the International Bar Association any design to satisfy political ambition or interest from the fact that I have called it an "Empire of Law." Its intention is not to secure advantage for itself or its members, as a political organ or an emissary of government. It works only for the universal good of mankind in the abstract and the broad interests of the whole human race. Its single interest is to advance human justice. The Empire of Law is the herald of universal peace. Its sole ambition is to lead the society of nations toward the millennium of peace under the supremacy of international justice. It shall be indelibly impressed upon its members and the world at large that its function shall never be betrayed by employment for any other purpose. The Association hopes that the time may come as the world develops when its members may direct and regulate human affairs by the creation and maintenance of international order and liberty under the standard of justice as established through their power and authority. What the Association would thus bring about is something that the world has never yet seen-different from that which has hitherto proceeded from the activities of politicians and officials misguided in judgment and miscalculated in design. Politics is a social disease of mankind which can be cured only when and as diagnosed and treated according to the proper sense of justice-the only standard by which the conflict of human interests can be adjusted, and which is developed and utilized according to the growth of human intelligence and moral sense in each people. To arrive at a commonly accepted international standard is not at present easily practicable since many different interests cannot be readily harmonized, so long as even leading nations do not absolutely trust one another. The International Bar Association is timely in its birth. It should help develop the real science of International Law. It is nearly three hundred years since the celebrated De Jure Belli ac Pacis appeared. Many treatises have been written; and many professors and publicists have lectured upon the law. No salutary and abiding impressions have been left upon the minds of Kings and Ministers. Had the impressions produced upon these men been the same as are inculcated by the Common Law, the power and sway of the doctrines of Internationl Law over politicians and government officials would not only have been different, but the Great War might not have occurred. The truth is that the so-called principles of International Law were not real propositions derived from the practice of nations, nor were they conclusions of human experience and reason; but they were no more than mere postulates invented by civilians. The doctrines apparently took root in the soil of European minds, where the Corpus |