Book Reviews : A History of Malaya. J. Kennedy. Macmillan. 30/-
| DOI | 10.1177/004711786300200808 |
| Published date | 01 October 1963 |
| Date | 01 October 1963 |
542
The
author
discusses
the
extent
to
which
the
universality
of
these
institutions
has
been
and
can
be
maintained
and
how
far
they
can
contribute
to
the
growth
of
international
law
by
initiating
State
practice
which
comes
in
time
to
be
recognized
as
customary,
and
by
infiltrating
international
standards
into
municipal
law.
Dr.
Bowett
casts
his
net
far
wider.
He
has
produced
an
extremely
valuable
text-book
which
though,
as
he
says
himself,
it
is
primarily
in-
tended
for
the
law
student
will
be
most
useful
to
anyone
interested
in
international
affairs.
International
organizations
sometimes
competing,
often
overlapping,
have
proliferated
to
an
almost
alarming
extent
since
the
end
of the
Second
World
War
and
the
law
of
international
organization
is
now
taught
in
universities
throughout
the
world
and
is
becoming
an
integral
part
of
the
general
body
of
international
law.
The
first
three
parts
of
the
book
are
historical
and
descriptive.
A
short
account
of the
establishment
of
the
first
public
and
private
International
Unions
is
followed
by
Part
I,
covering
Global
Institutions
such
as
the
League
of
Nations
and
the
United
Nations
with
their
organs
and
agencies.
Part
II
comprises
Regional
Organizations,
both
economic
and
strategic,
and
Part
III
describes
the
various
forms
of
judicial
institutions
from
ad
hoc
tribunals
to
the
International
Court
of
Justice.
In
Part
IV
Dr.
Bowett
examines
the
nature
of
the
problems
which
are
common
to
most
inter-
national
organizations
and
discusses
in detail
the
concept
of
International
Personality
and
its
consequences:
the
question
of
privileges
and
im-
munities
attaching
both
to
the
organization
and
its
personnel,
the
law
governing
its
activities,
the
dissolution
of
an
international
body
and
the
problems
of
succession.
He
goes
on
to
consider
the
impact
of
international
organisations
upon
the
doctrine
of
the
sovereign
equality
of
States
and
the
many
complex
issues
raised
by
State
membership
of
such
organizations.
This
is
perhaps
the
most
rewarding
part
of
the
work
for
the
general
reader
as
welf
as
for
lawyers
and
practising
diplomats.
Each
section
is
followed
by
a valuable
bibliography
and
the
work
is
completed
by
a
number
of
very
useful
charts.
Both
books
give
an
exhaustive
list
of
abbreviations
and
in
addition
Dr.
Bowett
also
lists
the
abbreviations
of
standard
works
of
reference
The
author
must
be
congratulated
not
only
for
filling
a
much
felt
want
but
for
doing
so
brilliantly
and,
above
all,
readably.
Whereas
with
so
many
facts
to
be
fitted
in,
it
would
be
easy
for
the
pudding
to
become
indigestable,
Dr.
Bowett’s
style
throughout
is
supremely
lucid
and
easy
to
follow.
A
History
of
Malaya.
J.
Kennedy.
Macmillan.
30/-.
Professor
Kennedy’s
book
provides
an
essential
background
against
which
to
assess
the
present
events
in
Malaysia.
In
300
pages
he
has
managed
to
distil
much
of
the
history
of
Malaya
over
five
and
a
half
centuries,
a
considerable
feat
of
compression.
There
are
few
reliable
sources
for
the
pre-European
history
of
the
country-such
sources
as
there
are
are
a
mixture
of
fact
and
legend.
The
deeds
of
the
rulers
stand
out
against
a
general
background
of
des-
perate
attempts
to
raise
money
and
an
oppressed
and
illiterate
peasantry.
The
author
emphasises
the
revolutionary
impact
of
the
Portuguese
and
Dutch
in
the
sixteenth
and
seventeenth
centuries
upon
the
static
society
of
the
Malaccan
empire
and
describes
the
formative
influences
successively
brought
to
bear
on
the
peninsular
by
the
Javanese,
Achinese,
and
Siamese.
In
the
background
there
always
stood
the
formidable
power
of
imperial
Ohina.
When
the
British
appeared
at
the
end
of
the
18th
century
the
quantity
of
historical
material
available
increased
enormously_ and
it
is
possible
to
follow
developments
in
much
greater
detail.
The
main
fact
of
modern
Malay
history
over
the
past
century
has
been
the
great
influx
of
economic-
ally
thrusting
Chinese.
Their
arrival
posed
the
double
problem
of
how
to
protect
the
much
softer
indigenous
peoples
from
exploitation
and
how
to
reconcile
the
two
groups
within
one
viable
nation.
This
was
a
task of
protecting
a
people
against
themselves,
one
never
easy
to
carry
out
successfully.
It
will
be
interesting
to
see
what
success
the
new
Malaysian
Federation
will
have
in
both
fields.
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