Liberia ^•- 



be with propriety made upon the government. Redress must be 

 denied on some palpably unjust ground, such as discrimination on 

 account of alienage, or there must be arbitrary acts of oppression 

 or deprivation of property as contradistinguished from penalties and 

 the punishments incurred through the ordinary infraction of law, 

 before the administration of a State's justice can be subjected to 

 diplomatic inquisition. 



That this discussion has taken place at all is directly due to 

 the indiscreet remarks and unfounded statements of persons connected 

 with the judiciary of Liberia. 



The representatives of foreign Powers in Liberia should remem- 

 ber that in all countries, especially in oriental lands, before making 

 complaints it is absolutely necessary to verify your facts. The first 

 point in the complaint of the German representatives was understood 

 incidentally to question the right of the Supreme Court of Liberia to 

 control the procedure of the subordinate Courts. As a brief statement 

 of the law in this regard may be serviceable, I will cite it. In the 

 Constitution of Liberia, Article IV., it is ordained as follows : 



" Section i. The judicial power of this republic shall be vested 

 in one Supreme Court, and such surbordinate Courts as the Legis- 

 lature may from time to time establish. 



"Section 2. The Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction 

 in all cases affecting ambassadors, or other public ministers and 

 consuls and those to which a country shall be a party. In all other 

 cases the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to 

 law and fact, wich such exceptions and under such regulations as 

 the Legislature shall from time to time make." 



The term "judicial power " is thus defined by Mr. Bouvier : " The 

 authority vested in the judges. The authority exercised by that de- 

 partment of government which is charged with the declaration of what 

 the law is and its construction so far as it is written law. The power 

 to construe and expound the law as distinguished from the legislative 

 and executive functions. The power conferred upon Courts in the 

 strict sense of that term ; Courts that compose one of the great de- 

 partments of the government. The term ' power ' could with no 

 propriety be applied nor could the judiciary be denominated a depart- 

 ment without the means of enforcing its decrees. The term 'judicial 

 power ' conveys the idea both of exercising the faculty of judging 

 and applying physical force to give effect to a decision. Judicial 



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