CHAPTER VI. CERTAIN MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW. SECTION 57. EXTRADITION. Extradition is the procedings by which a person who commits a crime in one country and flees into another is delivered up to the state from which he fled.' Among some countries the practice is in vogue of surrendering criminals as a matter of comity regardless of treaty. In England and the United States the prevailing principle is that such surrender must be based on express provisions of a treaty. In general those accused of political crimes cannot be extradited. SECTION 58. THE MONROE DOCTRINE. The whole subject of International Law is modified so far as the United States is concerned by what is known as the "Monroe Doctrine." "The Monroe Doctrine" was enunciated in the following words in President Monroe's message to Congress December 2, 1823: "In the discussions to which this interest has given rise, and in the arrangements by which they may terminate, the occasion has been deemed proper for asserting, as a principle in which rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization 'The general nature of extradition has been already discussed tional Law. See Vol. II, Subject 3, Section 233 by any European power. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them or controlling in any other manner their destiny by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." While the Monroe Doctrine has never been admitted to have the force of International Law, nevertheless it has been generally acquiesced in by foreign countries. The United States by this doctrine does not assume a general protectorate over the other American Republics. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. SECTION 1. DEFINITION. The principles of the branch of the law known as "conflict of laws," or "private international law," are those principles of law by which it is determined the laws of what state or country are to be used in the settlement of a particular controversy. It will be thus seen that the questions, to the settlement of which these principles are applied, are of a preliminary nature. No controversy can be finally settled by any of the principles of law studied under this subject; all that these principles can determine is what system of laws shall be used in determining the real matter of controversy. SECTION 2. COMPARISON BETWEEN PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW AND PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW. The distinctions between public and private international law are thus summed up by Mr. Minor in his work on Conflict of Laws:1 "Private international law may be distinguished from the public in three important particulars: "1. As to the persons on whom it operates. "Private citizens are the subjects of this branch of the law, while public international law deals for the most part with nations as such. "2. As to the transactions to which it relates. "The law of nations recognizes in general only transactions in which sovereign states are interested. 1 Minor on Conflict of Laws, Sec. 2. |