The supreme court is in some instances, given the power to appoint the attorney-general and the district attorneys and other court officers, the right to introduce in the legislative body any bills that relate to the judiciary, and to prepare and submit to the legislature the annual budget for the administration of justice. In Salvador the supreme court is given the power of oversight over all the inferior courts of the republic, and for that purpose is authorized to designate one of its justices to make visits of inspection to all other tribunals and courts.

The supreme courts of Central America are also joined with the legislative bodies in exercising the power of impeachment against the president and other high functionaries of state. Usually, the assembly decides whether impeachment or criminal proceedings shall be brought, and then the supreme court exercises the jurisdiction of trying the accused official.

The second paragraph of Article III of the Constitution of the United States defines and limits the extent of the jurisdiction of the United States courts. There is nothing to correspond to this in the constitutions of Central America. This is necessarily so because of the differences in the purposes of the respective governments. The Central American governments are intended to be general and unlimited; and therefore their constitutions give full and complete jurisdiction to their courts.

Article IV of our Constitution relates almost entirely to the relations of the several states of the union to each other and to the citizens of each state. Consequently but few of its provisions are applicable to the countries of Central America.

Article V has to do with amendments to the Constitution. In Central America the assemblies propose amendments by a two-thirds vote and a constitutional convention is then called to adopt or ratify the same.

Article VI has four separate provisions, namely: Assumption of the obligations of the confederation, making the Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States supreme, requiring an oath of office for all federal and state officers, and prohibiting a religious test as a qualification for office.

The framers of the Central American constitutions have not seen fit to insert provisions expressly adopting and assuming

the obligations of the preceding governments: They have contented themselves by granting to the legislative bodies the power to recognize the national debt and provide for its payment. Provisions making the national laws and treaties supreme would be inapplicable to their situation; but they have inserted provisions that no act of any governmental authority which is contrary to the Constitution shall be valid, thus in effect making the Constitution the supreme law of the land. Each official is also required to take an oath of office to observe and cause others to observe the provisions of the Constitution. Instead of forbidding a religious test for office, the Central American constitutions provide that no minister of religion shall be eligible to a public office.

The first ten amendments to our Constitution comprise our "Bill of Rights." They constitute a limitation on the power of the federal government in its relation to the people in general and also define certain rights of the people. Almost identical provisions are contained in the Central American constitutions. A noteworthy exception relates to those amendments to the United States Constitution providing for grand juries, trial by jury, and procedure according to the common law. The Spanish American colonies received their system of judicial procedure from Spain, hence they do not adopt the common law procedure in their constitutions and laws, but adhere very closely to the civil law system.

Provisions corresponding to the Eleventh Amendment to our Constitution would be inapplicable to Central American countries. The Twelfth Amendment relates to the Electoral College, which, as we have heretofore shown, has no counterpart in those countries.

The Thirteenth Amendment prohibits slavery. Each of the Central American constitutions also prohibits slavery either expressly or by implication. Article 10 of the Constitution of El Salvador provides:

"Every man in the Republic is free. No one who enters its territory shall be a slave, nor shall any one who deals in slaves be a citizen."

The only part of the Fourteenth Amendment, which could be applicable to Central America, is the first sentence defining citi

zenship of the United States. As here used, citizenship means nationality. The Central American constitutions apply different meanings to nationality and citizenship. The latter term is used more in the sense of having the privilege of exercising political rights. With regard to nationality, the Central American countries adopt, to a greater or less extent, both the idea of nationality by birth and the idea of nationality by parentage. That is, all who are born within the country are considered nationals, as well as those born abroad of parents who are nationals, subject to certain provisions as to residence and the right to choose nationality.

Our Fifteenth Amendment grew out of the emancipation of the slaves and is therefore not applicable to the Central American situation. The Sixteenth Amendment, relating to the income tax, grew out of the limited powers of the federal government. Since the Central American legislatures are vested with the general power of taxation, there would be nothing to prevent their passing income tax laws and this has been done in some of them. The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Amendments relate respectively to the popular election of senators and the prohibition of intoxicating liquors. The Central American countries have no senate, and they do not have constitutional prohibition.

It is our understanding that the women of Central American countries do not exercise the right of suffrage. However, their constitutions do not expressly restrict the right of voting to the male citizenship. They are, of course, written in the Spanish language; and in defining who are citizens having the right to vote, the masculine plural is used. However, the masculine plural is properly used in Spanish even when both the male and female are intended to be included. It seems that as a matter of practice and custom said provisions of the various constitutions are construed to apply only to the men. However, we note from recent press dispatches that the Costa Rican Congress has extended suffrage to women.

Provisions have been inserted in some of the Central American constitutions having for their purpose to construe certain rules of international law. For example, the Constitution of Honduras provides that:

"Art. 14. Foreigners shall not present claims against the State or demand the payment by it of any indemnity, except in the cases and in the manner in which Honduraneans may do so." "Art. 15. Foreigners shall not resort to diplomatic intervention except in case of manifest denial of justice, abnormal delays, or self-evident violation of the principles of international law. The fact that a final decision is not favorable to the claimant shall not be construed as a denial of justice. If in violation of this provision claims are presented, and not amicably adjusted, injury to the Government being sustained thereby, the claimant shall lose the right to inhabit the country."

Of course, such provisions cannot be operative outside the territory of the republic concerned. The right of diplomatic intervention, or interposition, is the right of the government of the injured party and that right may be asserted without regard to what may be contained in the constitution or laws of the country at fault. Ordinarily injuries resulting from revolutions or insurrections do not under international law give a right of redress against the government; but if in a particular case the government concerned has not discharged its international duty, it could not successfully defend a diplomatic claim on the ground that it was not liable under the terms of its own constitution.

Thus it appears that while there is a general resemblance between our federal constitution and those of Central America, there exist many provisions which have no counterpart in our Constitution. The resemblance is due largely to the fact that they adopted a representative form of government. It was only natural that they should make use of the political institutions of the most important, and almost the only, representative republican government then in existence. The points of difference are due to the European influence on their institutions and customs, especially their adoption of the civil law as the basis for their judicial system. And, of course, some provisions are the result of their own peculiar domestic situations and international relations.

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

JUDICIAL SECTION

The Judicial Section of the American Bar Association convened at St. Louis, Mo., on Tuesday, August 24, 1920, at 2.30 P. M., Hon. Charles A. Woods, of South Carolina in the Chair.

The President:

The Judicial Section of the American Bar Association will please come to order.

The Section is now to be welcomed by the presiding judge of the St. Louis Court of Appeals.

Hon. George D. Reynolds of Missouri:

Mr. Chairman and brethren of the Bench. It is a distinguished honor that has been conferred on me to welcome to our city such a body of representative men as the judiciary of this country. You have, many of you, probably for the first time, landed in this our city, but 156 years ago Laclede landed at the river bank on what is now the levee somewhere near what we now know as Market Street. Since that time the city has had quite a history, although not old when compared with those of the East. We were under the Spanish and French régime, and finally came under the American government. We have never had any other domination over us, than Spanish and French, unless it might be called the domination that the Indians occasionally had, when they came in and attempted to storm the stockade. Missouri claims to have come into the union in 1820, but as a matter of fact, it was 1821, because certain reservations in the act of admission hung up the matter for about a year. Since that time we have been making some history for ourselves. You know of the terrible internal conflict that raged in Missouri. Missouri was made up of pioneers. Lewis and Clark started out from this state and made their way across the Rockies and established the first white settlements on the North Pacific Coast. In the beginning of the Civil War this state was divided almost equally.