latin american essays maclas

Tejedor doctrines reject the traditional European practice of extraterritoriality,
that is, the claim of the European powers that they have a
right to extend their legal and diplomatic protection to their citizens
residing in the Americas. These doctrines proclaim that foreigners must
not be granted more rights than nationals and affirm the right of every
country to assert its judicial jurisdiction over all legal disputes occurring
within its territory (Calvo 1868a). Building upon the Jeffersonian principle
as well as the Calvo and Tejedor doctrines, Argentine Foreign Minister Luis
María Drago furthered the American republics’ effort to reform
international law by asserting, in response to the 1902 European
intervention in Venezuela, that foreign debts and financial claims must
never be used to justify military intervention. 22
• Second, inter-American legal principles do not constitute a threat against
the development of a global legal system or a threat against the
integration of the American republics in the international community.
International law is constantly growing. Its rules change as new
problems emerge and new perspectives, such as those of the American
republics, become part of the international system.
In accordance with the Social and Psychological School of Law to
which Álvarez and Dominican-born scholar Carlos Augusto Sánchez i
Sánchez subscribe, law is a cultural expression of a society's legal
consciousness and level of civilization. 23 For Álvarez and Sánchez i
Sánchez, geographical and historical factors have contributed to the
development of a psychological bond of solidarity and a corresponding
legal consciousness in the New World different from those of Europe,
which have been the basis for the emergence of an Inter-American
Law. 24 The existence of such regional legal systems is helpful in
promoting the reform and evolution of global international law.
American International Law is not seeking to separate the Western
Hemisphere from the rest of the world but to contribute new concepts
and new principles for the further development and strengthening of
global international law (Puig 1952, 27; Álvarez 1924, 31). In this
context, Álvarez and his allies also contend that it is not fair to say that
American International Law does not exist because many of its principles
are soon accepted by the entire world, becoming part of global
international law. That criticism, they believe, is based on a static
perception of American International Law. For them, American
International Law is not a fixed set of principles but a dynamic legal
system—a system that is continuously evolving and contributing to the
development of the equally dynamic global international law.
Accordingly, allowing for regionalism in international law actually
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