FOREIGN JUDGMENTS IN BRAZIL.

Foreign laws have no extraterritorial force except by comity, and the extent to which a state shall permit its own jurisprudence and institutions to yield to those of another is a matter to be decided by each country in the exercise of its sound discretion. Generally, force and effect will be given by states to the laws of other states when they are applicable, unless they affect injuriously its own citizens, violate its express enactments, or are contra bonos mores. No state, nevertheless, carries its sense of international courtesy to the extent of permitting criminal matters to be affected thereby. Rules of comity apply only to civil judgments and not to criminal decisions. Out of the confusion of judicial decisions on the effect of foreign judgments, this much seems to be settled everywhere: Judgments and decrees of foreign courts relating to immovable property within their jurisdiction are held to be binding, and the rule is the same as to movables actually within their jurisdiction (Story, Conflict of Laws, sec. 592; 1 Greenleaf on Evidence, sec. 541; Bouvier's Law Dictionary). And Story and Greenleaf support the statement of Bouvier that

Judgments in personam, regular on their face, which are sought to be enforced in another country, are conclusive evidence, subject to a reexamination in the courts where the new action is brought only for irregularity, fraud, or lack of jurisdiction as to the cause or parties.

The following, in translation, are the provisions of the law of Brazil relating to foreign judgments and decrees, taken from the Compilation of Federal Laws, approved November 5, 1898, decree No. 3084:

CHAPTER 2.-CONFIRMATION OF FOREIGN JUDGMENTS.

ARTICLE 7. Judgments rendered by foreign courts shall be executed after previous confirmation by the federal supreme court upon hearing the parties and the attorneygeneral of the Republic.

ART. 8. Judgments of foreign tribunals, civil or commercial, may be confirmed only after the following requirements shall be complied with:

(1) They shall have the necessary formal prerequisites to execution prescribed in their respective states.

(2) They shall have been pronounced by a court of competent jurisdiction, the parties having been duly summoned or their failure to appear having been legally verified, according to the provisions of local law.

(3) The proceedings must have been carried to judgment.

(4) Such decrees shall be duly authenticated by the Brazilian consul. (5) The decrees shall be accompanied by translations into the vernacular. ART. 9. Notwithstanding the said judgments conform to the requirements of the preceding section, they shall not be confirmed in case they embody decisions in derogation of public order or contravening the domestic public law of the Union.

ART. 10. In proceedings confirmatory of foreign judgments, the following regulations must be observed:

(1) The public prosecutor shall give notice to the parties against whom execution is sought, to submit their defense within eight days from the date of such notice, the demandant being allowed an equal period to reply.

(2) The following constitute valid defenses:

(a) Any doubt respecting the authenticity of the documents or the wisdom of the decision.

(6) Absence of any of the prerequisites enumerated in articles 8 and 9.

In all cases, the production of any proofs touching the grounds on which the adjudged suit was decided is admissible.

(3) After the answer is filed, or at the expiration of the time for filing the same, the attorney-general of the Republic shall take the matter up, and the papers shall be submitted, with his opinion, to the public prosecutor and successively to two revisers, according to the forms prescribed in appeals.

(4) If the judgment of the foreign court is confirmed, an instruction shall issue to the judge of the district to which the case belongs, authorizing execution of the .judgment.

(5) In case the execution of a foreign judgment shall be sought through diplomatic channels and the demandant shall not appear, the court will name a curator to represent his cause, who shall take in his name all necessary steps in the proceedings.

The same proceedings shall take place with respect to the person proceeded against, in case he shall not appear, or shall absent himself from the jurisdiction, or if he is a minor or interdicted.

ART. 11. Proceedings upon executions and the various methods and incidents of the same shall be regulated by the laws, forms, and practices that are in force in the Republic for the execution of domestic decrees of the same nature.

The interpretation of the decree and the effect of the same shall be determined by the law of the country where such decree was obtained.

ART. 12. Within the period of six days allowed for seizure in personal actions and ten days in real actions, the defendant shall have the right to submit defenses that do not involve the nullity or infringement of the final judgment.

ART. 13. When judgment shall be rendered in derogation of the execution of the decree, the papers, documents, and other proofs on which the same was founded may be offered in actions which for the same object may be tried before the courts of the Republic, and the same shall be accepted for their legal value.

ART. 14. The following foreign decrees may be executed without the formality of confirmation by Brazilian courts:

(a) Foreign decrees of partition.

(b) Foreign decrees that are merely declaratory, such as those affecting personal

status.

(c) Arbitral decrees confirmed by foreign courts.

ART. 15. Foreign decrees of bankruptcy in the case of a merchant domiciled here, being a Brazilian citizen, can not be executed in Brazil.

ART. 16. Foreign decrees which declare bankrupt merchants having their domicile in the country where such decrees are pronounced shall take effect in this Republic after their confirmation, except in the following cases:

(1) Independent of confirmation, and upon exhibiting the decree and order in proper form, naming the persons interested in the property, these persons can demand proceedings to preserve their rights therein, collect debts, effect settlements (if they have powers for this purpose), and institute suits, without the necessity of giving security for the costs.

(2) All acts involving the execution of decrees, such as the collection of goods and their sale at auction, may be undertaken only after the decree shall have been made executory by confirmation, upon the order of a Brazilian judge, his action being regulated by the laws of his country.

(3) Notwithstanding that the foreign decree of bankruptcy shall have been declared executory, the creditors domiciled in the Republic who may have mortgages on property situated here are not inhibited from demanding their loans and holding the properties.

(4) Specialty creditors domiciled in the Republic who have judgments against the bankrupts at the date of the confirmation shall be empowered to proceed to final process and to take out execution on the properties of the bankrupt situated in the Republic.

ART. 17. A foreign decree of bankruptcy affecting a merchant who has two establishments, one in the country of his domicile and another distinct and separate in the Republic, after confirmation, shall not comprehend in its effects the establishment existing in the Republic.

ART. 18. Agreements and other proceedings taken to prevent or delay declarations of bankruptcy confirmed by foreign courts remain subject to confirmation in accordance with the terms of the preceding articles, and shall be obligatory on creditors resident in Brazil only when they shall have had notice to take part in the proceedings.

ART. 19. In case there shall be a treaty or convention regulating the execution of foreign decrees, the provisions of the same shall be observed.

ART. 20. Letters rogatory emanating from foreign authorities do not require confirmation, and they shall be carried out after the exequatur of the Federal Government shall be obtained, their due execution pertaining exclusively to the district judge of the State where the proceedings sought are to be executed.

All favor shown foreign judgments is practically nullified by the provisions of section 10, which provides that the wisdom of the judgment may be inquired into, and that the grounds of the decision of the foreign court may be reviewed in all cases by the defense here; so that judgments are capable of execution here only after being subject to a reexamination, in the nature of a new trial; and the local court may pass in review the facts of any case, and decide as to whether the foreign judgment was pronounced on good ground

or not.

There exist no treaty regulations respecting the effect to be given foreign judgments and decrees of the United States in the courts of Brazil and vice versa.

SANTOS, April 27, 1899.

FRANK D. HILL,
Consul.

JUDICIAL REFORMS IN ARGENTINA.

Having had unpleasant experience in courts of justice in claims. for collection for American citizens, I am glad to report that on yesterday the long-expected bills embodying judicial reforms were formally laid before the Chamber.

The President proposes to maintain the organization of the supreme court as defined by the law of October, 1862, modifying the status of the attorney-general, who will cease to be a member of the court and be simply a representative of the ministry. Its jurisdiction as a court of appeals is to apply as follows: In validity of national or provincial government action; in decrees of nullity against. sentences of the superior court (to be created); in naval and maritime cases, for amounts not exceeding $5,000 or not provided for by the commercial code; in civil and commercial actions for a like amount, provided always that the action does not arise from the circumstance of the litigants being one an Argentine and the other a foreigner, or living in different provinces; in sentences pronounced in ordinary cases of summary jurisdiction for more than $5,000, when there is no appeal in the ordinary course; in sentences in cases of sedition, rebellion, treason, or attempt against the life of the President, the ministers, or members of Congress.

In this way, the supreme court has a higher jurisdiction and is relieved of cases of purely private interest, which on appeal will go to the superior court, a new tribunal to hear appealed cases other than those reserved for the supreme court.

In actions for less than $1,000, there will be no appeal from the sentence of the federal judges.

The chambers of appeal will be one for civil and one for criminal cases, the former consisting of seven and the latter of five members. The bill also provides for special tribunals for the trial of causes for amounts not exceeding $4,000.

The office of justice of the peace is to be retained, those holding it not being necessarily lawyers, but "good men," who will act according to equity, etc.

For lesser cases, another chamber in the civil chamber is to be formed, composed of five members, to consider appeals from the lower courts.

Criminal procedure is to be radically modified. Five judges of instruction and sentence will be appointed and will together definitely pronounce sentence.

A jury of impeachment is to be formed for the removal of magis

trates, which is to declare when the latter fail in fulfilling their duties. This tribunal or jury is to be so constituted as not to interfere with the independence of the judges, but to avoid abuses arising from their immovability.

The bill also provides for enlarging the functions of the public ministry, specifying its duties, the responsibility of its agents, etc.

BUENOS AYRES, May 10, 1899.

D. MAYER,

Consul.

PROPOSED ARGENTINE TARIFF.

Knowing the interest taken by our manufacturers in the subject of the customs tariff here and in other countries, I hasten to say that the Argentine Executive has just transmitted to Congress the budget law for next year. This law includes the customs-tariff project proposed by the executive power for 1900. Although this may be modified in some manner by Congress, I am inclined to the belief that the recommendations will be adopted.

In referring in the message accompanying the budget law to the question of customs duties, and especially to the additional customs duty of 10 per cent now in force, the executive power says:

This special tax was established in moments of supreme expectancy, in the name of high and sacred considerations of national security, and with the purpose of applying the product therefrom toward satisfying the extraordinary requirements of the nation at that moment. The public powers obligated themselves as well to suspend the tax by decree as quickly as the then existing state of things disappeared or became modified.

These considerations, fortunately, do not now exist; but I find myself obliged to propose the continuation of the financial burden which this additional duty imposes upon the country, seeing that, although no reason of national security argues its imposition, there is still to be canceled a debt of importance, previously contracted, the object of which is well known.

Notwithstanding, in order to make this additional duty less onerous, I have sought to distribute the sums which it represents among the principal schedules of the tariff law, seeking to lighten those that are found most heavily burdened and to burden those that are less; and, after a comprehensive study, I believe that the method contained in the proposed customs law reconciles, as far as it is possible, the interests of the consumer and the revenue necessities of the State.

In accord with the views thus expressed, the executive power recommends that the 10 per cent additional duty spoken of be merged for 1900 into the regular duty in the following manner: Where the present ad valorem duty is 25 per cent, it is to be raised to 35 per cent; where it is now 50 per cent, it is to be raised to 60 per cent; where it is now 40 and 45 per cent, both are to be raised to 50 per cent; where it is now 15 and 20 per cent, both are to be,