Book Review: Governmental Liability. A Comparative Study
| Author | C. B. Bourne |
| Published date | 01 December 1955 |
| Date | 01 December 1955 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070205501000419 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
303
Differences
could
be
ignored,
as
the
diplomats
themselves
could
be
ignored
when
their
opinions differed
from those
of
the
Leader.
Diplomatic
activities
(like
those
of
the
soldiers),
were
outflanked,
paralelled,
duplicated.
A
secret du
roi
was
forged
in
Ribentrop's
Dienststelle
and
the
Foreign
Division of
the
Party,
a private
army
in
the
SS.
And
when
it
came
to
Munich,
the
Leader's
inspiration
overrode
"expert"
advice.
And
yet,
the
author
implies,
the
secret
du
roi
is
not
a
mono-
poly
of
totalitarian
regimes.
Louis
XV
and
Franklin
Roosevelt
both
used
amateur
diplomatic
troubleshooters,
and were
not
the
first
or
the
last
to
do so.
As
for
Munich,
both
Hitler
and
Chamberlain
were
following
their
private
inspirations, regard-
less of
advice
or
relevant
information.
So
the
tale
of
Wilhelm-
strasse
disintegration
is
pertinent
to
our
own.
On
this
Mr.
Seabury
has
an
axe
to
grind,
and
he
grinds
it
well.
He
unfolds
the
progressive
disintegration
of
an
organ-
ization
adapted
to
deal
with
diplomatic
problems,
but
unfitted
in
structure
and methods
to
cope
with
political
ones.
But
his
account
tends
to
show
that
the
new
political
pressures
which
des-
troyed
the
old
conceptions
and personnel
of
the
Wilhelmstrasse
before
they
destroyed
its
buildings,
are
not
peculiar
to
Nazi
Germany.
The
acceleration
which Daniel
Hal6vy
discerned
in
recent
history
inevitably affects
political
and diplomatic
ac-
tivity.
It
makes
diplomacy
a
handmaiden
of
politics
to
a
greater
extent
than
ever before. As politics
become
more
than
ever
power
politics,
the
"diplomatist"
finds
less
and
less
scope
except,
as Ribentrop's
retainers
did,
in
jackal activities
"concerned
chiefly
with
the
manipulation of
opinion
and
the
extermination
and
deportation
of
men."
The
issue
facing
the
public
servant
remains,
as
the
author
suggests,
a
moral one;
and
his
work
has
made
a
fascinating
contribution to
our
understanding
this.
But
were
the
issues
clear in
the
Wilhelmstrasse?
Will
they
be
clear
anywhere
by
1984?
University
of
Alberta
EUGEN
WEBER
GOVERNMENTAL
LLABILrrY.
A
COMPARATIVE
STUDY.
By
H.
Street,
1953.
(Cambridge:
Harvard
University
Press;
Tor-
onto:
Macmillan.
233pp.
$4.25)
The
book
under
review,
one
of
the
Cambridge
Studies
in
In-
ternational
and
Comparative
Law,
is
an
historical,
analytical,
and comparative
study
of
the
laws of
governmental
liability,
mainly
of
the
United
Kingdom, of
the
United
States
of
America,
and
of
France, with
some
reference
to
the
laws of
the
Com-
monwealth countries.
As
it
is
an
excellent
summary
of
this
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