This is a most interesting book, considered from either its content or its point of view. Primarily, it offers an idealized explanation (from a legalistic approach) for all the colonization and de-colonization of the non-European world. Valladão maintains this position by citing political and legal concepts culled from the ages and from the works of such diverse authorities as Vitoria, Suárez, Machiavelli, and Adlai Stevenson, to name just a few of his references. Self-conscious European power is given as the main reason for the flouting of basic justice in the European subjugation of most of the rest of the world. The fact that basic justice and laws implementing it were virtually unrecognized at the time is ignored. So is today’s limited acceptance of these commodities.
In many ways, the author’s opinions are perhaps more interesting and important than his thesis. Solidly buttressed behind multi-lingual references, Valladão’s work reveals a Latin-American identification with and sympathy for the newly emergent nations of Asia and Africa that could have far-reaching effects. Also, what could be called extreme liberalism is evident in some of his beliefs, such as his feeling a need for such countries as San Marino, the Vatican, Monaco, and Lichtenstein to become full-fledged members of the United Nations, on a par with more powerful and populous countries. Perhaps there is sufficient justification for such an attitude. But Red China is not mentioned, and neither is Castro’s Cuba. Both of them were major problems at the time this book was written, and would seem to pose more intricate legal problems today than are offered by minor principalities. Although the author denounces autocratic government either by an individual or a group, he is careful not to label any regime as such directly, and is sublime in his belief in the eventual success of law in perfecting the condition of man the world over. His optimism is admirable and his facts impressive, but his conclusions seem based upon an unwarranted faith in man’s self-perfectibility. This work is both provocative and informative within its limited scope.
