Though the law of nations should be uniform in all countries, a comparison of the leading works in different countries, English and German for instance, will reveal many differences partly traceable to the particular system of law in which the author was grounded, and in part to his peculiar “judicial instinct.” It is not often that one finds an English or American lawyer thoroughly grounded in the Roman system and the modern Continental systems founded upon it; quite as rare is it to find a Continental lawyer learned in the system of English jurisprudence. There have been such men, as, for example, Rudolf Gneist, whose great work on English Constitutional Law and History has become a classic. But, as a rule, there is among text writers on this branch of law and among the eminent jurists who have hitherto been connected with international tribunals much “provincialism in thought and conception,” if the phrase may be allowed, and to overcome it the future jurists who shall take part in international contests before the high tribunal of the nations will require to be more thoroughly grounded in the history and evolution of law in general and in the study of comparative law, both private and public, in particular, than their predecessors have been.[R] In this connection it is not too much to hope that the unifying influence of an international tribunal will eventually exercise a good effect in promoting the solution of various perplexing problems on the private side of international law, or what is known as “conflict of laws.” [R] As evidence of increased attention to this matter in Germany, see Wertheim, Wörterbuch des Englischen Rechts. Having indicated some directions in which the growth of international law will be likely to be promoted by the tribunal, the question suggests itself whether the jurisdiction of the international court will eventually be enlarged beyond the scope at present contemplated by the Convention of The Hague. Will the time ever come when such a court shall take cognizance of various matters which now lie without the sphere of “business disputes and questions of a juridical nature” and within that of essential interests, honor, race, and religious policies and ideals? The statement, which is sometimes heard, that such will never be the case, does not seem warranted when we regard the growth of law in general, and indeed the development of this particular branch of it, in the past, but it is safe to say that the time is a long way off; it will depend on many things: the efficiency of the court itself, the continued growth of neutral rights, the increasing necessity for preserving international peace, and the infinite forces which have tended to widen the jurisdiction of municipal law.[S] [S] See Le Droit de la Paix, by M. Descamps.