ARTICLE 40

Cases are brought before the court, as the case may be, either by the notification of the special agreement or by a written application addressed to the registrar. In either case the subject of the dispute and the contesting parties must be indicated. The registrar shall forthwith communicate the application to all concerned.

He shall also notify the members of the League of Nations through the secretary general.

ARTICLE 42

The parties shall be represented by agents.

They may have the assistance of counsel or advocates before the court.

ARTICLE 43

The procedure shall consist of two parts: written and oral. The written proceedings shall consist of the communication to the judges and to the parties of cases, countercases, and if necessary, replies; also all papers and documents in support.

These communications shall be made through the registrar, in the order and within the time fixed by the court.

A certified copy of every document produced by one party shall be communicated to the other party.

The oral proceedings shall consist of the hearing by the court of witnesses, experts, agents, counsel, and advocates.

ARTICLE 46

The hearing in court shall be public, unless the court shall decide otherwise, or unless the parties demand that the public be not admitted.

ARTICLE 47

Minutes shall be made at each hearing, and signed by the registrar and the president.

These minutes shall be the only authentic record.

ARTICLE 48

The court shall make orders for the conduct of the case, shall decide the form and time in which each party must conclude its

arguments, and make all arrangements connected with the taking of evidence.

ARTICLE 53

Whenever one of the parties shall not appear before the court, or shall fail to defend his case, the other party may call upon the court to decide in favor of his claim.

The court must, before doing so, satisfy itself, not only that it has jurisdiction in accordance with articles 36 and 37, but also that the claim is well founded in fact and law.

ARTICLE 55

All questions shall be decided by a majority of the judges present at the hearing.

In the event of an equality of votes, the president or his deputy shall have a casting vote.

ARTICLE 56

The judgment shall state the reasons on which it is based. It shall contain the names of the judges who have taken part in the decision.

ARTICLE 57

If the judgment does not represent in whole or in part the unanimous opinion of the judges, dissenting judges are entitled to deliver a separate opinion.

ARTICLE 58

The judgment shall be signed by the president and by the registrar. It shall be read in open court, due notice having been given to the agents.

ARTICLE 59

The decision of the court has no binding force except between the parties and in respect of that particular case.

ARTICLE 60

The judgment is final and without appeal. In the event of dispute as to the meaning or scope of the judgment, the court shall construe it upon the request of any party.

ARTICLE 61

An application for revision of a judgment can be made only when it is based upon the discovery of some fact of such a nature as to be a decisive factor, which fact was, when the judgment was given, unknown to the court and also to the party claiming revision, always provided that such ignorance was not due to negligence.

The proceedings for revision will be opened by a judgment of the court expressly recording the existence of the new fact, recognizing that it has such a character as to lay the case open to revision and declaring the application admissible on this ground.

The court may require previous compliance with the terms of the judgment before it admits proceedings in revision.

The application for revision must be made at latest within six months of the discovery of the new fact.

No application for revision may be made after the lapse of 10 years from the date of the sentence.

CHAPTER VII

THE ELECTORATE

Importance of the People in Modern Government.-In preceding chapters we have had occasion a number of times to speak of "popular government," "popular election,” “election by the people," etc.; indeed, in the classification of governments we made the distinction between democratic and autocratic governments on the basis of participation or nonparticipation in the government by the people. In England and the United States especially the right of the people to exercise the suffrage (i.c. to vote) for the personnel of government, and thereby to hold an important degree of control over the government, is the very foundation of the liberalism and free institutions which have existed in those countries longer than in most. On the continent the French Revolution established the right of the people to a share in the government, and now such a right is universally recognized in the states of western Europe. The fundamental principle of democracy is involved in the suffrage of the people.

Not All People Are Allowed to Vote.-Strictly speaking, however, the phrases "popular government" and "election by the people" are misleading, for the reason that in no state do all the people possess the suffrage. The principle on which certain specified persons or classes of persons are excluded from the suffrage in democratic countries is in general one of reason and common sense. For example, it is absurd to suppose that an infant in arms is capable of casting an intelligent vote; it is equally absurd to suppose that an imbecile should be allowed to vote, or that a convicted criminal should have a share in government by the use of the ballot. The restrictions upon

the suffrage are intended to prevent the exercise of this right by all persons who could not do so with judgment and propriety.

The Electorate: Proportion Relative to Whole People.— The body of persons in a state who are legally qualified to exercise the suffrage is known as the electorate. In those states where the suffrage is most widely extended to-day the ratio of the electorate to the entire population is not greater than one to five; in former times in states which considered themselves democratic, as in England, various restrictions made this ratio between the electorate and the whole people very much less, in some cases not more than a few hundred thousand possessing the suffrage in a total population of several millions. We live to-day in an era of liberalism in which the tendency is to extend the suffrage as widely as reason will allow.

I. QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ELECTORATE

By What Method Legally Declared.-The qualifications required for the exercise of the suffrage are differently determined in the different states. In a few of the great states, as France and Germany, a single comprehensive law or article of the constitution embraces the whole state. In England a series of laws, including the great reform acts of 1832, 1867, 1884, and 1918, has extended the suffrage without wholly repealing previous statutes, thus rendering the condition theoretically complex. In actual fact, however, the suffrage is to-day very liberally extended in England. In the United States, under the constitution, the electorate must have "the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature" (U. S. Const., Art. I, Section 2), and provision is made in the famous fifteenth amendment that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." In this country, therefore, the electorate of the United States is determined