The inauguration of the mixed court of tangier on june 1, 1925, marked the beginning of a new experiment in international cooperation for the administration of justice. While it is perhaps too early for any definite conclusions to be drawn as to the success and significance of this experiment, enough time may have elapsed for some useful study to be made of it and possibly for some forecast of its future.

One of the most controversial rules of private international law is the exception of public order, the rule not to enforce foreign laws which are contrary to the fundamental conceptions of the law of the state having jurisdiction. There is no country in which this exception has not played an important rôle in the refusal to enforce foreign laws, and numerous writers have discussed the importance and difficulties of the exception of public order. Its problems had been thoroughly studied before the World War by many authorities on private international law, among others by Bustamante, Fiore, Kahn, Klein and Pillet, without a uniform solution having been reached. When, after the war, the states began to reestablish their international relations, the exception of public order began anew to play its rôle in the courts the world over, and to put the same difficulties before the judges dealing with cases of conflict between domestic and foreign laws.

The reëstablishment of treaty relations with Germany seems to have afforded occasion for a new type of treaty incorporating new principles,restating old ones and generally rearranging the subject-matter considered.Provisions relating to consular privileges and immunities show the influence of this new consideration. The Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights with Germany has been followed by similar treaties with Estonia and Hungary. Ratification of a like treaty with Salvador has been advised and consented to by the United States Senate, but the exchange of ratifications has not yet been announced. A consular convention with Cuba follows the corresponding provisions in the treaties of friendship, commerce and consular rights so far as consular privileges and immunities are concerned. As press reports have indicated that similar treaties may be negotiated with other states, it is possible that there may be an extensive redefinition of consular privileges and immunities along the lines of the provisions of the recently published treaties. In the light of this possibility the contents of this part of the treaties are of great importance and an examination of them of present interest. As the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights with Germany was the first of the series,the following discussion is based upon the provisions of that treaty, with attention being given to the more important departures in the later treaties.

In the vast field of international relationships, one of the intricate problems is that which has centered around the question of nationality. No uniform rules have been laid down either by conventional or by customary international law for the determination of nationality. Unfortunately the whole matter is regulated by municipal law, and in consequence of the diversity of regulations many conflicts have resulted. There are additional complications encountered in that phase of the problem which deals with the relation of state succession and nationality. When a state acquires new territory by gift, cession, conquest, or by whatever means, the political status of the inhabitants of the territory must be determined.

In the April, 1926 number of this Journal, Professor Quincy Wright remarks, apropos of the Damascus bombardment: