Book Reviews : Definition and Classification of Minorities. By United Nations Commission on Human Rights. (Memorandum submitted by the Secretary General.) Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. (Lake Success, New York: Columbia University Press. 1950. Pp. iv, 51. 40 cents.)

• Published date: 01 December 1951
• Date: 01 December 1951
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400414
• Author: Joseph B. Schechtman
• Subject Matter: Articles

650
gives us the historical development of his subject prior to and during
the existence of the U.N. and an analysis of the norms, but also a fine
theoretical study of the many problems involved, always from a strictly
legal point of view. Every problem, arising under the U.N. Charter, is
critically compared with the mandates system of the League of Nations.
The author points to differences between the two systems and to innova-
tions, progress, and retrogression. Although critical of a number of
norms or their formulation from the point of view of legal technique,
the author is, in general, writing with sympathy toward this part of the
c)f
tha T Tnitpr! Nn+inmq
JOSEF
L. KUNZ.
University of Toledo.
Definition and Classification of Minorities. By United Nations Commission
on Human Rights. (Memorandum submitted by the Secretary Gen-
eral.) Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection
of Minorities. (Lake Success, New York: Columbia University Press.
1950. Pp. iv, 51. 40 cents.)
&dquo;In order to facilitate discussion&dquo; of the definition and classification
of minorities (an item which has been placed on the agenda of the third
session of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Dis-
crimination and Protection of Minorities), the U.N. Secretary General
submitted to the Sub-Commission a twenty-five page long memorandum
on this subject.
This memorandum is a most strange document. Carefully avoiding
any &dquo;expression of the views of the Secretary General,&dquo; anxious to safe-
guard a &dquo;purely theoretical approach&dquo; to the problems involved, and
attempting to be &dquo;essentially ... a compilation, a summary, and an
organization of the findings of the social and political sciences with
respect to minorities,&dquo; the study has degenerated into a hopelessly abstract,
scholastic, and sterile product. It is difficult and often impossible even
for a trained student of the minorities problem to find his way amongst
the piled-up and...