Book Review: International Law and Organization: International and Comparative Law of the Commonwealth
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207002500318 |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| Author | S. A. De Smith |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BooIc
REVIEWS
645
this legal
process
really
do
provide
the
best
measurement
of
the
limits
of
supranationalism
which
international
society
will
accept.
Law
may
be,
as
the
author
states,
a
function
of
society,
but it
may
reflect
society
better
in
more
clearly
political
processes.
Perhaps
a
better
yardstick
would
have
been
afforded
by
the
post-
adjudicative
enforcement
process
(in
itself
rather
than
as
the
tail
end
of
the
judicial
process)
-courts'
decisions
may
or
may not
remain
within
the
limits
of
tolerance
of
the
society,
but
the
nature
and
extent
of
the
compliance
with and
enforcement
of decisions
will
surely
tell
(let John
Marshall
enforce
his decision);
or
perhaps
by
the
legislative
process
(e.g.
in
the
United
Nations
General
Assembly)
where
real
political
bargaining
(rather
than
legal
argumentation)
goes
on,
where
political
representatives
of
all
states
(rather
than
a small
number
of
judges
and
lawyers)
participate,
and
where
decisions
are
in
clear
financial
and
political
(rather
than
jurisdictional and
technical-legal)
terms.
Grieves'
tertiary
objective
is to
evaluate
the
role
of
international
courts
in
integration
beyond
the national
state
(p.
viii),
but
he
does
not
really
pursue this.
Rather,
he
admits
that
courts
are
not
the
only
indices
of
integration,
and
that
legislative
and
executive
organs
are
at
least
as
important.
In
any
case
all
supranational
organs
must
rest
on
a
basic
and generalized
commitment
to
integration
from
the states.
Although
an
examination
of
these
other
types
of
supranational
organs
might
have
served
his
"social
science"
objectives
better,
it
is
courts
that
Mr.
Grieves
is
concerned
with, recalling
Sir
Henry
Maine's
obser-
vation
about
the
"immense ascendancy
over
men's
minds"
and
the
"singular
attraction
to
their
tastes"
of
courts
of
justice.
It
is
neverthe-
less
part
of
Mr.
Grieves'
accomplishment
to
have
helped
cultivate
the
minds
and
tastes
of his
readers.
Carleton
Univer8ity
CHARLES
DALFEN
International
and Comparative
Law
of
the
Commonwealth.
Edited
by
ROBERT
R.
WILSON.
Durham:
Duke
University
Press.
1968.
x,
247pp.
$9.00.
This
is
indeed
a
symposium
with
a
promising
title.
"Inter
se
rides
again"
might
perhaps
be
an
apt
subtitle.
But
no:
for
R.
Y.
Jennings,
in
his
contribution
on
"The
Commonwealth
and
State
Succession,"
brushes
off
the
inter
se
doctrine
as
"little
more
than
a
smoke
screen"
(p.
36).
David
Deener's
paper
on
"Colonial
Participation
in
International
Legal
Pro-
cesses"
is
almost
entirely
historical.
Professor
and
Mrs.
Taubenfeld's
study
of
"The
Commonwealth
and
International
Sanctions" emphasizes
how
deeply
the
modern
Commonwealth
is
divided
over
the problems
of
southern
Africa
in
particular
and
international
affairs
in
general.
The
conference
at
which
these
papers
were
delivered
took
place
at
the
Duke
University
Commonwealth-Studies
Center
in October
1966.
A
more
appropriate
title
would
have
been
International
and
Comparative
Law
and
the
Commonwealth.
Then,
as now,
there
was
precious
little
Commonwealth-wide
law.
Commonwealth
relations
are
basically
inter-
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