either the causes or effects of democracy, they are synonymous with democracy itself, and democracy cannot exist without a strong Bar, as guide. No wonder therefore that no Bar Association such as yours has ever arisen in civil law countries.

Germany is the country where this Continental system has held absolute sway. There, the Corpus Juris Civilis has been followed as the source of her jurisprudence, and the late German imperialism was a system of despotism erected upon that foundation. The law is the great agency of civilization, and it wields with deadly silence its powerful influence for good or evil; it is the most effective force in the formation of national character, and moulds the course of its development, particularly in respect of social order, and psychologically too, as has been demonstrated by the Great War, where the failure of German strategy at the battle of the Marne was the initial decisive catastrophe. The false system followed in German law caused the fall of the German Empire; contempt for its obligations under international law whose sole foundation is good faith among nations, was the fatal precursor of national destruction.

As to the power and resources of the common law, need I offer any observations to this great audience? It has evolved its own development by marking out the boundaries of practical jurisprudence; it has built up the most efficient system of judicial administration known for the maintenance of truth, justice and liberty. It inaugurated democracy, and is nurturing it and bringing it nearer to perfection with every day.

In view of these juristic developments, where should the work of the International Bar Association begin? Certainly in those regions most congenial to its growth. Such regions are North America, where the common law prevails. The system of the Bar Association is after all an antetype of the American Republican Government. It is a fine example of democratic organization. It is but natural that its flower should have blossomed forth from out of the soil of the common law. It is an AmericanEnglish law institution. But the idea of a bar association is not generally known except in America and Canada. The significance of such an institution would not appeal to practitioners in civil law countries, nor as yet even in England and those countries which have followed her system. This is the reason why

the International Bar Association should first look to you, American lawyers, and seek to enlist your sympathy in its cause, and this in spite of England's being the cradle of the common law. Through you and with your co-operation, the membership should be extended to England and Ireland, later to the British commonwealths the foundation of whose jurisprudence is the common law; then to Scotland and South Africa where the common law and the Roman law are in process of fusion, and later, but not last, to India and the British Settlements along the Asiatic coast, where the common law and Indian or Eastern laws are in course of amalgamation. We should not forget European and South American countries, in which the Roman law is the foundation of jurisprudence, and nothing should be left undone to enlist their sympathy and co-operation.

The League of Nations, formed at the conclusion of the Great War, is far from being a perfect instrument. Its own existence is not yet firmly established, much less is it the potent instrument to guide the world in international affairs in the way of truth, justice and liberty, that we all hoped it would be. Many vital problems to be solved as the outcome of The Great War have not been probed, and the goal of ultimate peace, order, and happiness has not been reached.

Most of us are at present sound critics of the League of Nations. We like to think we know what is wrong, and how that wrong can be righted; but in all seriousness and humility, the real, practical way to adjust or minimize the failings and shortcomings of the League is to have them harmonized and adjusted as regulated by the common standard of international justice, such as could be formulated by the members of the Bar only, whose sense of fairness and deep experience and learning are peculiar to them, or should be, and who are really the statesmen of the age, and have been tending to become so ever since lawyers framed the Constitution of the United States.

It is our opinion that the International Bar Association is an important, nay, an indispensable auxiliary of every political enterprise, of which the League of Nations is only an exampleis the instrument to bring nations together in better understanding, particularly the east and the west, whose modes of thought

are totally different, and to promote the cause of justice in the interest of the peace of the world, by extending the principles of democracy into the relations between the nations, regardless of race, language, religion or other limitations of life.

Today, the members of civilized societies are hardly yet conscious of the power and authority of the Bar in the making of modern civilization, but the time of this recognition must come, and the sooner the better, unless the world is to crumble into pieces, as is now threatened by the undemocratic ideas which appear to have captivated some sections of different nations.

What intelligent mind can doubt that it is the Bar alone which is really qualified to give real, impartial advice towards the construction and maintenance of the League of Nations, and that the integrity and independence of the Bar can assist in the dictation and administration of justice at the permanent International Court such as would be organized, were the League of Nations solidly instituted? The Bar of the world should resolve that its voice, its influence, its love of liberty, its conception of truth, and its sense of justice be made to serve in directing and settling the destiny of mankind. Justice standardized by the Bar can surely hold nations together in liberty and in peace.

As this should be so, why is it not for the lawyers of the world to combine under the guidance of our American and common law brethren, to organize themselves in the International Bar Association, so that this may be the universal organ to help maintain the peace of the world and to promote the cause of human progress?

Such, Mr. President, are the reasons that prompted me to address a letter to the members of your honourable Association at the 1919 annual meeting, pointing out that then had arrived a time most opportune for the American Bar Association to lead the way to organize the International Bar Association of the world with the object of establishing the standard of international justice. I reminded you then that the combined action and sympathetic co-operation of members of the Bar in the League of Nations was never more imperative. The two years which have passed since I last met you, have brought no change whatever in these circumstances, which produce, and go on producing, international disputes.

Is not the time now more than ripe for the nations of the world to move under the enlightened guidance of the Bar of the common law countries, to demonstrate to the world that there exists that high standard of international justice which can and will propagate its sound principles of democracy among nations in the attempt to secure the peace, progress, and happiness of mankind? We are most anxious that all the North American Bar Associations will now join the International Bar Association, and so encourage the Bars of all other nations having a jurisprudence based on the common law to do likewise. We could hope nothing better than that through your accession and leadership the International Bar Association should thus begin its great work. The Association so supported with your prestige will stimulate the members of the Bars of those countries whose jurisprudence is of Roman origin to follow in what I trust will be our common enterprise. The International Bar Association, thus expanded and strengthened, should acquire in time authority to dictate the standard of international justice among all nations to be enforced by all the sanctions at the command of civilization, and this would prove to be the one essential bond of union and understanding between the Occident and the Orient.

The lawyers of the American Bar have rendered so much service to the cause of human progress, national and international. The amelioration of legislation, the elevation of the position of the judiciary, the advancement of peace and the development of international law, all these did great contributions to your credit, but, in my opinion, the work of establishing and defining the international standard of justice far surpasses in importance any of these achievements.

Until there shall be convened a general meeting under the joint auspices of both Occidental and Oriental Bar Associations, the International Bar Association cannot be said to have entered upon its real existence.

The inauguration meeting of the International Bar Association took place in Tokyo in April last year. The first regular meeting of the duly constituted International Bar Association will be held on October 24-26, next in Peking.

I shall be proud to welcome the day when the International Bar Association meets in Washington.

ADDRESS.

BY

TOSHIMARO YAMAMATO,

OF YOKOHAMA, JAPAN.

It is indeed a great pleasure to me to have had the opportunity to be present as an invited delegate from the Bar Association of Japan.

It has been frequently stated during the past few years, and the business experience of the commercial world has conclusively proven the truth of such statement, that the business of the industrial nations of the world has so developed that the financial prosperity of each industrial nation depends upon the prosperity of every other industrial nation.

As a result of the recognition of this idea, individuals and companies from all industrial nations are now sending representatives abroad to engage in business. Americans in large numbers have come to Japan and to the Far East and have established offices there. I feel therefore that it might be of interest to the members of this Association to discuss briefly the legal position of foreigners in Japan, and more particularly that of American companies and American citizens and to touch briefly upon a few legal problems that have resulted from the large volume of trade that has grown up between Japan and America within recent years.

The Japanese Commercial Code contemplates that individuals or groups of individuals may do business in the same way that individuals or groups of individuals are authorized to do business under American law. That is to say, an individual can do business in Japan either alone in his own name or under a trade name, or the individual may associate with others and conduct business as a partnership or in corporate form. Americans may either associate in partnership form or in corporate form under the laws of some particular state and thereafter engage in business in Japan under such organization, or they may form such an organization under Japanese law.