Book Review: International Government

Abstract

JUDGE MOWER has succeeded in the aim modestly stated in his preface of presenting in a single volume an outline of the international governmental system at once comprehensive enough to embrace its essential features, and non-technical enough to be of general interest. He is at pains at the outset to justify his use of the title of his book as indicating not merely form oi organization, but also all of the processes by which the public international business is transacted. He is thus justified in describing not only the organization and. working of the international structure set up by the Treaty of Versailles, but also the means of official intercourse between states which operate independently of this more formal machinery. Nearly one half of the book, therefore, deals with topics which are treated in any general work on international law-for example, international sovereignty, tho equality of states, diplomatic intercourse, the balance of power, the Concert of Europe, international unions, treaties and treaty making through separate negotiation and by means of conferences, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and: international courts. These processes, in the aggregate, constitute international government, and their inclusion was essential not only for this reason, but also to provide the necessary introduction to the second half of the world, which deals with the League of Nations, the Permanent Court of International Justice, and the International Labor Organization.