390 COMPARATIVE LAW 



sensual divorce, requiring the consent of both parties, is a bilateral 

 act, whereas divorce during the second period was a unilateral act, 

 which took place at the will of the husband, who gave her a "letter 

 of divorce " formulated, as a custom, in three lines and a half " miku- 

 dari-han," stating that he gave her a dismissal, and nothing should 

 henceforth stand in the way of her marrying again. As to the judicial 

 divorce, either party to marriage can claim divorce from the other, 

 if any of the grounds specified by law exists, so that husband and 

 wife are now placed on an equal footing in this respect. 



It will appear, from the foregoing rough sketch of the three periods 

 in the history of the law relating to the position of woman, that 

 during the first period, while Shintoism was the only form of wor- 

 ship, woman held a higher place than in the second period, when 

 Confucianism, combined with Buddhism and feudalism, held down 

 woman in a state of subjection; while in the third era a great revo- 

 lution has been made in the position of women, and equality with 

 men, as far as their private rights are concerned, is vouchsafed to 

 them under the new Civil Code. 



X. The Status of Foreigners 



The possible forms which the law of any. country relating to the 

 position of foreigners may assume, or the possible stages through 

 which it may pass, may be arranged, by the broad generalization of 

 comparative jurisprudence, under the four following heads: 



(1) Laws based upon the Principle of Enmity. 



The laws of almost all barbarous peoples are based upon the 

 principle that all foreigners are enemies, and consequently have 

 no rights whatever. Even after they cease to regard foreigners as 

 enemies, they view their own laws as exclusively national; that is 

 to say, they are applicable only to their own countrymen. Foreigners 

 are therefore outlaws, and are placed outside the protection of the 

 law. 



(2) Laws based upon the Principle of Inferiority. 



With the advance of civilization, especially with the progress of 

 commerce, foreigners are no longer regarded as enemies, but from 

 disdain for foreigners, or from national egoism, they are placed in 

 inferior position as regards the enjoyment of their private rights. 

 Sometimes the enjoyment of many rights is totally denied them, 

 or sometimes capricious limitations are placed upon their legal 

 capacities. In this stage foreigners enjoy private rights, but in a 

 limited degree only. 



(3) Laws based upon the Principle of Reciprocity. 



Some countries make the condition of foreigners dependent upon 

 the treatment which their own people receive in other countries, 

 and allow foreigners the enjoyment of their rights only so far as the 



