APPLICATIONS OF LAW: PERSONS AND PLACES.
Early law is tribal, i.e. the individual is subject to its authority and entitled to its benefits be cause of his membership in a tribe. With the formation of wider political associations. law becomes national. Under either system the stranger or foreigner is out of the law, unless its protection be extended to him through a mem ber of the tribe or nation, or by virtue of a treaty.
Earley law is also religious; it applies only to the members of a particular cult. Where many tribes have a common religion. the religious law may give a certain protection, within each tribe, to strangers of the same cult. Differences of religion are not found in early times among the members of a tribe; but with the formation of wider political unions different cults may be brought under a common sovereignty, and differ ent rules may be applied to the adherents of the various cults. This is the case to-day in British India. In some of the European States, as late as the nineteenth century-. Jews were allowed to
live by their own law as far as their family re lations were concerned; and in Austria, at the present time, divorce is refused to Catholics, al though it is granted to non-Catholics.
The law of the modern State (which is some times, hut not very appropriately, termed 'mu nicipal' law) is strictly national only as regards political rights and duties, which are confined to citizens or subjects (nationals). In all other respects it is territorial ; it governs all persons within the jurisdiction of the State, whether they are nationals or aliens. A few private rights are withheld in some countries from aliens, but in general the alien enjoys the same private rights as the national. _An exception to the rule that law is territorial is found in the institution of exterritoriality (q.v.). In many cases. finally, the territorial law itself not only permits, but re quires the application of foreign law by its own courts. See CONFLICT OF L.AAV.