Chung-kou yü kuo-chi-fa (china and International Low). Vol. I. By Tang Wu. Taipei, Taiwan: Chinese Cultural Publishing Commission, 1957. Pp. xxii, 274. NT$17.00
This book is one of the newest additions to the Chinese literature on international law. The author is a Chinese career diplomat with wide experience and is now Chinese Minister to Liberia.
This volume, the first of four volumes of the work, contains nine chapters dealing with the history background, the basis, the theories, the rules and the supremacy of international law (Chapter 1 to 5), the organization and members of the international community (Chapter 6 and 7), and the problems of recognition (Chapter 8 and 9). It took the author almost four full years to complete his manuscript (Preface, p. ii), and, as evidenced by the extensive footnotes, there is really a great deal of laborious work involved.
It is especially gratifying to the reviewer to see that see that the author shares his ideal of marking good use of Chinese source materials side by side with those usually available to scholars in the West. Certainly, the author has rendered a valuable service by setting straight certain essential facts concerning some of the most controversial problem of international law in China’s international relations during recent years, such as the closure of the seaports of the Chinese mainland (pp. 264-268).
However, there are several points upon which second thought might be helpful. First of all, the content of the book does not seem to justify the title. When one reads the title “Chung-kuo yü kuo-chi-fa,” he would be naturally inclined to believe that it must be a specialized book like Jean Escarra’s La Chine et le droit international (Paris, 1931), dealing with China’s special problems of international law. As a matter of fact, this book is not so specialized, but is a general treatise on international law, with occasional references to China.
Some term used by the author are rather of a novel type of doubtful value. For instance, he advocates the use of the term “State under international law” in place of the simple word “State” for the “convenience of study” (p. 185), and so he did (pp. 186, 215). He cites J. L. Brierly’s Law of Nations in support of his contention, but a check on that reveals that Brierly has never used such a term. The nearest inference is probably this subtitle: “General Nation of States in International Law” (Italics are reviewer’s) in Chapter IV thereof.
The author seems to be fairly objective throughout the whole volume, although marked nationalism and patriotism are understandably visible here or there. It is a commonplace for Chinese writers to use the first person instead of the third person, and the present author makes no exception to this practice (pp. 11, 15, 17, 29, 31, 34, 37, 41). These and other similar technical defects can easily be eliminated when the book comes up for revision in the future.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　SAMUEL SHIH-TSAI CHEN