THE "MINIMUM STANDARD" OF THE TREATMENT OF ALIENS

Authors

Edwin Borchard, Yale University Law School

Abstract

During the meeting of the Committee of Experts for the Codification of International Law at Lima, Mr. Cruchaga Ossa of Chile contended that article 9 of the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States made the equality of rights the maximum that could be claimed by any alien. He denied the existence of any "minimum standard" for the treatment of aliens; but remarked that even if there were one recognized in Europe the countries on this continent had in the first, second, fifth and seventh Inter-American Conferences committed themselves to the doctrine of absolute equality, which henceforth constituted the rule of law in the Americas. Although Chile had in 1930 conceded that a denial of justice gave a foreign government a privilege of intervening diplomatically on behalf of its nationals, Mr. Cruchaga in 1938 was driven by the logic of his own position to dispute the possibility of invoking diplomatic protection against denials of justice, because nationals could not enjoy it. On September 10, 1938, President Cardenas of Mexico attacked the whole conception of diplomatic protection as an impairment of national sovereignty.

Recommended Citation

Edwin Borchard, THE "MINIMUM STANDARD" OF THE TREATMENT OF ALIENS, 38 Mich. L. Rev. 445 (1940).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol38/iss4/2