PRIVATE RIGHTS AND STATES' RIGHTS. 175 



resident aliens.-- In these cases, however, the difficulty has arisen 

 from the strictly statutor\ character of the jurisdiction of federal 

 courts and not from constitutional guarantees. Congress is compe- 

 tent"'' and in fact has provided for the punishment of offenses of 

 the first though not of the second character in federal courts.-'* 



Constitutional guarantees do not seem to interfere with a due 

 observance of the immunities guaranteed to foreign sovereigns, 

 diplomats, naval and military forces, consuls, etc., by international 

 law or treaty. Thus foreign diplomatic officers have been con- 

 sidered immune from compulsory attendance as witnesses.-^ In 

 a case where the accused claimed a constitutional right to have a 

 French consul subpoenaed as a witness in a criminal trial, the 

 California court upheld the consul's claim of treaty immunity on 

 the ground that the guarantee of the \^Ith Amendment of the Con- 

 stitution gave the accused only the same rights as the prosecution 

 and not an absolute right " to have compulsory process for obtain- 

 ing witnesses in his favor." -'' It also appears that the prohibition 

 amendment does not interfere with the exemption from inspection 

 enjoyed by the baggage of diplomatic officers.^" 



Finally, constitutional guarantees have not impaired the gov- 

 ernment's ability to follow the custom of international law whereby 

 the succeeding government continues the existing system of civil 

 and criminal law in newly acquired territory. In the insular cases 

 the Supreme Court held that constitutional guarantees did not apply 

 to unincorporated territory ex propria vigore and hence the pre- 

 existing system of law in the Philippines, Porto Rico, etc., although 



'2 Objection has been made in Congress on the score of encroachment 

 upon state reserved powers. See Taft. U. S. and Peace, N. Y., 1914, p. 74. 



23 Baldwin v. Franks, 120 U. S. 678. 



2t U. S. Rev. Stat., sees. 5373-5374 ; Criminal Code of 1910, sees. 304-305 ; 

 infra, chap. XII. 



-^ See case of the Dutch minister Dubois, 1856, who refused to appear 

 in a criminal trial, and case of the Venezuelan minister, Comancho, who with 

 consent of his government waived his privilege and appeared as a witness 

 in the Guiteau trial for murder of President Garfield. Moore, Digest, 4: 

 643-645. 



-'^ In re Dillon, Sawver 561, Fed. Case No. 3914 (1854); Moore, Digest, 

 5: 78. 



2^ The papers of October 22, 1920, reported a controversy on this sub- 

 ject between the State and Treasury departments at Washington. 



