The Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of International Conventions for the Protection of War Victims was convened by the Swiss Government and met at Geneva from April 21 to August 12, 1949. Sixty-three governments were represented at the Conference, fifty-nine of whom had full voting powers, while the remaining four attended as observers.

Among the solutions to the highly controversial issue of the standing of the individual in international law is the theory that the individual is not a subject, but an object, of this law. This solution, moreover, represents the currently dominant doctrinal conception of the position of men in this law. For ever since its formulation in 1896 this theory has been expressly or tacitly accepted by nearly all of those jurists who may be collectively designated as the subjective positivist school of international law, and these jurists have ever since that time predominated in the science of this law. Nevertheless, the validity of this theory has also been questioned seriously.

The rise of new states in the Indian realm is an outstanding development of the postwar era. India, Pakistan, Burma, and Ceylon have gained independence, and Nepal in the Himalayas is emerging from isolation. The United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union have extended diplomatic recognition to some or all of the five states of the Indian realm. India, Pakistan, and Burma are now Members of the United Nations, but the applications of Ceylon and Nepal have been vetoed by the Soviet Union. Another consequence of the emergence of new states in the Indian realm is the creation of complex international boundaries with subsequent territorial disputes for the agenda of the Security Council of the United Nations.

Private property of enemies lost its absolute inviolability when at the end of World War I it was subjected to the claims of Allied nationals against Germany. After World War II enemy exterior assets became the object of reparations at the Potsdam Conference between the Governments of the United States, the Union of Soviet Socialist Eepublics, and the United Kingdom. To implement the Potsdam Agreement the Allied Control Council for Germany on October 30, 1945, enacted Law No. 5 which, inter alia, purported to vest in the Council title to German private assets in the neutral countries. In Switzerland this action eventually culminated in the Swiss-Allied Accord of May 25,1946, between France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland, which provided for the liquidation of German property in Switzerland4 valued at approximately 150 million dollars. The proceeds of liquidation are to go fifty percent to Switzerland and fifty percent to the several governments signatory to the Paris Reparations Agreement of December 21, 1945.

The International Law Commission of the United Nations held its third session at Geneva, Switzerland, from May 16 to July 27, 1951. In the course of fifty-three meetings, the Commission completed its work on the following items: (1) reservations to multilateral conventions; (2) question of defining aggression; and (3) preparation of a draft code of offenses against the peace and security of mankind. It also concluded the first phase of a review of its Statute. In the field of the codification of international law, the Commission undertook further consideration of the topics of (1) law of treaties and (2) regime of the high seas. It also decided to initiate work on the topics of “nationality, including statelessness” and “regime of territorial waters,” and appointed Judge Manley 0. Hudson and Professor J. P. A. Frangois special rapporteurs, respectively, for these topics. The actions (including some of an administrative character) taken by the Commission are set forth in a report to the General Assembly.