International Law and Justice Working Papers - IILJ

The State embodies in law the goodness; the development of the State has led to that. But
through mistakes he has had to acquire knowledge since not everything was law that carried the
name of law. (…)” 76
The reason why there had to exist a customary obligation to punish or extradite (aut punire aut
judicare) was immanent to the system of the nation States. “As every State had the task to
advance the cause of law, so is it the general task of all States: to guarantee to every other State
legal help and to safeguard the capture and punishment of fugitives of other nations.” 77 There
was no right to asylum for fugitive criminals. By committing wrong against a member, the
criminal committed wrong against the whole. 78 Extradition had become a duty of all States that
protected their existence, so that no one may doubt in its necessity, in its generality, in its
justification in the law of nations. 79 With what right could then the institute of asylum serve as a
pretext? The reasons for the right to asylum have disappeared: „Der Verbrecher, wo er sich auch
hinwende, sei seiner Strafe gewiss!“. 80
However, contrast Bulmerincq’s thesis with the ones of Robert Mohl (1799-1875), a leading
German international law scholar at that time. 81 Mohl’s treatise was published in the same year
as Bulmerincq’s 82 and Bulmerincq made a positive reference to it subsequently. 83 Mohl
explained how the significance of the asylum question consisted in the aftermath of the 1848
revolution and the question of political refugees. He contrasted the asylum legislation in different
76 P. 137.
77 P. 156.
78 P. 157.
79 P. 157-158.
80 P. 159.
81 The attempt of the rector of Dorpat University, Gustav Ewers, to win Mohl from Tübingen to Dorpat in 1825 had
turned out unsuccessful. See P. Järvelaid, Sissejuhatus kultuuripiiri teooriasse: Friedrich Georg von Bunge ja Leo
Leesment, Tallinn: Publications of Nord University, 2004, p. 21.
82 R. Mohl, Revision der völkerrechtlichen Lehre vom Asyle, Zeitschrift für Staatswissenschaft 1853, pp. 461-604.
83 Augustus Bulmerincq, De natura principiorum iuris inter gentes positivi, Dorpat: H. Laakmann, 1856, p. 1-2.