The Mexican National Bar Association (Ilustre y Nacional Colegio de Abogados de México) claims to be the oldest American professional association. In 1960 the association celebrated its second centenary by sponsoring a series of lectures by prominent Mexican attorneys, dealing with various aspects of international law.
Of the twenty-two lectures announced for the series, nine are included in this volume. They range from twelve to thirty-six pages in length, averaging between twenty and twenty-five pages.
As to subject matter, the papers could be divided as follows. Two deal with international public law and problems of peace. Professor César Sepúlveda writes “On the function of lawyers in the maintenance of international peace”; Ernesto Rojas y Benavides, on “Latin America and its contribution to the development of international public law.” One essay, by Salvador Cardona, concerns “Nuclear energy and law.”
Two papers deal with the air space—“Astronautics and space law,” by Antonio Francoz Rigalt, and “The configuration of aviation law,” by Enrique M. Loaeza. Maritime law is represented by Alfonso García Robles’s “The width of the territorial sea,” and Jorge Castañeda’s “The amendments to articles 27, 42, and 48 of the Constitution, concerning the nation’s maritime domain, and international law.”
Finally, two papers deal with the field of international private law. Guillermo Gallardo Vázquez considers the theoretical bases of the subject, while José Luis Siqueiros presents a comparative study of the subject in Mexico and the United States.
As in almost any symposium, the quality and appeal of the essays varies somewhat, but the general level of these contributions is good.
The three essays which this reviewer found most interesting were those of García Robles (on the territorial sea), Siqueiros (on Mexican and United States private international law), and Francoz Rigalt (on astronautics and the law of space).
García Robles’s essay, apparently a summary of his book, La Conferencia de Ginebra y la anchura del mar territorial (México, 1959), is a clear statement of the divergent national positions and the difficulties of reaching agreement on territorial limits. The Siqueiros and Francoz Rigalt essays are also good statements of their subjects, the latter being especially interesting because of the relative newness of the field.
There have been few symposiums on Mexican law in recent years. One such was issued by the same organization and publisher in 1961—El pensamiento jurídico de México en el derecho constitucional. A symposium in English by Mexican lawyers is Mexico; a Symposium on Law and Government (Miami University Law School, 1958).
