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10 Brit. Y.B. Int'l L. 32 (1929)
International Law and the Property of Aliens

handle is hein.journals/byrint10 and id is 36 raw text is: INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE PROPERTY OF ALIENS By ALEXANDER P. FACHIRI THERE appeared under this title in the British Year Book of Inter- national Law for 1928 an interesting paper by Sir John Fischer Williams, K.C., which was, in part, a reply to an article of mine in an earlier issue of the same publication.1 Controversy for its own sake is fruitless, and I should be loath to return to the charge were it not that the subject is of special moment at the present time, and the con- tinued endeavour of lawyers to throw light upon it, each from his own point of view, may not be without value. The whole question of the property rights of foreigners under international law is being closely examined and canvassed from various angles. We are, in some sort, at the parting of the ways, when a final decision on one side or the other may soon become inevitable.2 The movement towards expropriation on a large scale has received considerable impetus, and there is pressing need to determine what is, and what ought in future to be, the attitude of international law in the matter. Before approaching the main question, it may be well to clear the ground of those existing disputes which, although related to the subject under discussion, do not raise the issue in its pure and simple form. As Sir John Fischer Williams very justly observes, in the conflicts arising out of the expropriation of the Hungarian optants, for instance, the main issue is not a general question of international law, but the interpretation of the Treaty of Trianon. If, as the Hungarians contend, Article 250 of the Treaty directly prohibits the expropriation in question, there is no need to decide the general question of international law. That question, as stated by Sir John, is whether or not, apart from any special terms imposed by a 'concession' or by a treaty, there exists a general rule that if a state expropriates the property of an alien without the payment of full compensation it commits a wrong of which the state of the alien affected is entitled to com- plain, even if the measure of expropriation applies indiscriminately to nationals and to aliens . International law is not concerned, generally speaking, with the treatment accorded by a state to its subjects. It is, therefore, a question outside the purview of international law what a state does with their property. On the other hand, there can be no doubt, and I Year Book, 1925, pp. 159-71. 2 e. g. at the forthcoming Conference on the Codification of International Law.

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