Abstract

International Necessity

The article presents information on the book "The Doctrine of Necessity in International Law," by Burleigh Cushing Rodick. This book is an attempt to supply the need for a critical and extended study of what, to the popular mind at least, is one of the most familiar and most abused doctrines of international law. The term necessity is often employed, sometimes alone, sometimes qualified as political or legal necessity, sometimes transformed into political or legal self-defense. An examination of the textbook writers, from Grotius down, shows that while some of them have found the basis of the doctrine in theoretical conceptions, writers of the historical school have insisted that "any correct analysis of the problem of necessity should be based upon actual cases illustrative of its use."