508 INTERNATIONAL LAW 



It is thus that we are led to ask ourselves a last question: In what 

 place shall the administrative, legislative, and judiciary organs of 

 humanity, having definitely entered into the juridical era, be situ- 

 ated ? Where shall the world-parliament deliberate ; in what city 

 shall the international administrations be gathered; where shall the 

 international court sit? We have already been invited to give our 

 opinion regarding this problem, and we have not hesitated to give it 

 a solution which would seem bold and audacious at first blush. In 

 our opinion the most serious obstacle in the way of pacification of 

 the world and of its submission to the sole force of law arises from 

 the situation created by the war of 1870 between Germany and 

 France. The colonial appetites, so acutely sharpened during these 

 last years, did not succeed in creating serious misunderstandings 

 between the civilized nations. The Berlin Convention of February 

 26, 1885, has shown that Europe was capable of viewing such diffi- 

 culties with wisdom and moderation. But the conquest of Alsace 

 and Lorraine has been the direct cause of the inconsiderate develop- 

 ment of contemporaneous armaments. With a really exemplary 

 courage, the study of this situation has been taken up anew during 

 these last years, both to the east and the west of the Rhine, and 

 various propositions have been suggested. The division or exchange 

 of the conquered provinces has won over the most authoritative 

 elements. It has seemed to us that the idea of neutralization was 

 more fruitful if connected with the ideas here presented. The 

 Reichsland of the German Empire would become the Weltland of the 

 world-empire and Strassburg might become the modern Cosmopolis. 



Where war has raged and triumphed, there should law be enacted 

 and its respect assured by world-administration and an international 

 court. About these political organisms would rapidly be grouped 

 international scientific and intellectual institutions. There the main 

 congresses might have their center of irradiation; there a universal 

 library and a world-university might be organized most usefully: 

 there the Association of Academies might have its main head- 

 quarters, and the dismantled fortress might become the vast human 

 city open to all nations and all races. 



There would be upon the earth only vast provinces of a vast em- 

 pire, ruled by a single law, common to all men and all states. 



