If the twenty-sixth year of the World Court has not been one of intense activity, it has been marked by events of some significance for the future. The single session held by the Court during the year was devoted to administrative questions, largely to those growing out of the reorganization of the previous year. One proceeding was instituted before the Court, the first since its reorganization, and the Court was seized of one request for an advisory opinion emanating from the General Assembly. Some progresswas made in the extension of the Court’s jurisdiction, and a series of resolutions concerning the Court was adopted by the General Assembly on November 14, 1947.

The acceptance of the United Nations Charter by the overwhelming majority of the members of the family of nations brings to mind the first great European or world charter, the Peace of Westphalia. To it is traditionally attributed the importance and dignity of being the first of several attempts to establish something resembling world unity on the basis of states exercising untrammeled sovereignty over certain territories and subordinated to no earthly authority.

The international frontier is formed by the zones where Great Power interests come together in conflict. It is the main line of structural weakness in the earth’s political crust—the main fissure where wars break through. The powers are constantly at workon the frontier trying to patch up the peace by international arrangements of various kinds.

The work which has been undertaken by the United Nations with regard to the encouragement of the progressive development and codification of international law finds its express origin in the duty given to the General Assembly by Article 13, paragraph 1 (a) of the Charter of the United Nations. It is therein laid down that: “ 1 . The General Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of: (a) promoting international cooperation in the political field and encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification.” At the Conference held at San Francisco, April 25 to June 25, 1945, at which the Charter of the United Nations wasdrawn up, the measures that should be taken for “revitalizing and strengthening” international law, shaken in the course of a quarter of a century by the upheaval of two World Wars, were considered by Committee II/2 of the Conference.