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The Progressive Codification of International Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Manley O. Hudson*
Affiliation:
Harvard Law School

Extract

It was inevitable that the end of the World War should be followed by a revival of interest in the systematic development of the law of nations. Such a result was foreseen by W. E. Hall as long ago as 1890, but the extent of the revival and its consequences were pictured by him in terms altogether too sanguine. Many of the people who have expected the experience of the war to be capitalized in an immediate clarification of the laws of war must have been greatly disappointed by the events of the past years. A struggle which aroused so many passions, which divided a large part of the human race into hostile camps, could not possibly have produced the conditions necessary for building a new law which would embody the common views of people in many countries; but perhaps it did serve to direct attention to the lawless character of international relations in certain fields, and thus gave to politicians and lawyers opportunity for extending and improving the law governing such relations. If there has not been a general unanimity of opinion as to the method to be followed and the direction to be taken, the opportunity has not been neglected, and currents are now under way and agencies have been created which promise a continued if not a consistent progress for the future.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright, 1926, by the American Society of International Law

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References

1 See Hall, International Law, 3rd ed. (1890), preface.

2 Commis3 U. S. Foreign Relations, 1914, p. 10..

3 The annex to the annual report to the Assembly of the League of Nations on the work of the Council and the Secretariat tabulates the progress of this process of international legislation.See League of Nations Document A, 6 (a), 1926, Annex.

4 See Minutes and Documents of the Second Pan-American Conference, p. 716.

5 See the volume entitled Codification of American International Law, published by the Pan-American Union, Washington, 1925.

6 The annex to the annual report to the Assembly of the League of Nations on the work of the Council and the Secretariat tabulates the progress of this process of international legislation.See League of Nations Document A, 6 (a), 1926, Annex.

7 Franck,“ New Law for the Seas: An Instance of International Legislation,” 42 Law Quarterly Review, p. 25 (January, 1926); Franck, “ The New Law for Seas. Further Progress,” 42 Law Quarterly Review, p. 308 (July, 1926).

8 Records of First Assembly, Meetings of Committee, I, pp. 422-464.

9 Records of the First Assembly, Plenary Meetings, p. 746..

10 Records of the Fifth Assembly, Minutes of First Committee, p. 97.

11 Records of the Fifth Assembly, Plenary Meeting, p. 125.

12 The Council set up the committee by a decision taken on December 11, 1924. League of Nations Official Journal, February, 1925, p. 143.

13 The documents were published by the Secretariat of the League of Nations, lettered C. P. D. I., and were republished in the Special Supplement to this JOURNAL for July, 1926

14 See League of Nations Official Journal, July, 1926, p. 858.

15 The Government of the Union of Soviet Republics has declined to make any reply.