Book Review: The Political Foundations of International Law
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206201700222 |
| Author | G. R. Davy |
| Date | 01 June 1962 |
| Published date | 01 June 1962 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
177
AGREEMENT
IN
PRINCIPLE.
By
Peter
Stursberg.
1961.
(Toronto: Long-
mans,
Green.
286pp.
$5.50.)
Except
in
wartime, there are
few
Canadian
foreign
correspondents
and
a
consequent
scarcity
of
records
of
their
experiences
in
book
form.
Mr.
Stursberg
is
one of
the
exceptions.
This
volume
records
his
impres-
sions
of
the
post-war
world
as
gleaned when
a
foreign
correspondent
for
the
Daily
Herald
or
as
a
reporter
on
the
United
Nations
for
the
-Canadian
Broadcasting
Corporation. Mr.
Stursberg
journeyed
from
Potsdam
to
Delhi
and
from
the
Caribbean
to
Africa.
Sometimes
his
narrative
degenerates
into
the
sort
of
compilation which
can
only
be
-described
as
wasted
writing,
such
as:
We
reached Cairo
the
next
afternoon
and
were
put
up
at
the
Hotel
Continentale,
which
had
a
delightful
little
cafM
on
its
roof;
some
of
us
spent
the
night
seeing
the
sights,
for
we
had
to
be
ready
at
one
o'clock
in
the
morning
to
take
off
at
half-past-two
for
Tripoli
and
London.
In refreshing
contrast
is
a
vivid
description
of a
personal interview
with
Gandhi.
The
book
also
develops
the
sort
of
flippant
cynicism
which
is
an
occupational disease
for
many
newsmen.
Such
chapter
headings
as
"A
Jeep
for
Every
Greek"
or
the
description
of
the
UNEF
as
"a
corps
of
commissionaires,
a
bunch of
glorified
janitors,
whose job
it
was
to
act
-as
international
watchmen
along
the
Israeli-Egyptian border"
are
lively
journalisms,
but not
much
more.
The
best
section
of
the
book
deals
with
events
at
the
United
Nations
and
the
author
has
some
frank
and shrewd
ýcriticism
of
some
Western
policies,
especially
those
of
the
United
States.
Surely,
it
is
a
gross
oversimplification
to
declare
that
General
MacArthur
had
to be
ousted
". ..
not
because
he
rattled
the atom
bomb
too
much,
but
because
he
misled
the
President"!
In
short,
this
is
a
marginal
book
in
its
field
which
reads easily,
but
does
not
leave
much in
its
wake.
'The
University
of
British
Columbia F.
H.
SowARD
'THE
PoLmIcAL
FOUNDATIONS
OF
INTERNATIONAL LAW.
By
Morton
A.
Kaplan
and
Nicholas
deB.
Katzenbach.
1961.
(London:
New
York:
John
Wiley
&
Sons. xi,
373pp.
$6.95.)
The
role
in
law
in
relations among
states
has
for
too
long
been
-little
understood
and
often
much
maligned,
even
within
the
legal
pro-
fession
itself.
The
vast majority
of
lawyers
trained
in
Canada
have
never
been exposed
to
a
single course
in
international
law, and
in
this
-they
differ
little
from
their
American
counterparts.
Part
of
the blame
for
this deplorable
state
of
affairs
must
be
laid
at
the
feet
of
the
inter-
national
lawyers
themselves,
for
they
have
too
often
devoted
their
entire
,energies to
fruitless
and
esoteric
debates among
themselves
on
points
-of
international
legal
theory
which
often
have
no
relevance
to
relations
among
states
in
the
twentieth
century.
Part
of
the
blame,
too,
must
be
borne
by
those
responsible
for
the
administration
of
legal
training
in
North
America,
where
the
emphasis
has
been too
much
on
"bread
and
,butter"
courses
about
"laws"
Instead
of
more basic education
in
the
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