A Seventeenth Century Problem in the Application of Prohibition Laws to Foreign Diplomats

Abstract

While the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act were in force there was much debate on the question as to whether international law required that foreign diplomats be exempt from their operation. Administrative regulations provided for such exemption, but an interesting article by Mr. Lawrence Preuss argued forcibly that no such exemption was required. The matter has become wholly academic now, although it might become practical again should Congress ever reenact a prohibition law for the District of Columbia. None the less, it may be instructive to call attention to what seems to be the only direct precedent in international practice, a precedent which has apparently remained buried until now.