This work forms a companion volume to Legal Advisers and Foreign Affairs published three years ago in a similar format, under the same editorship and auspices, and reviewed by the present writer in this Journal for January, 1965. Like its predecessor it is the outcome of a symposium sponsored by the American Society of International Law under the Chairmanship of its President, Professor Brunson MacChesney, which took place at Bellagio in August, 1965, the participants being members not of government legal services but of the analogous services of representative international organizations. In sponsoring the Bellagio Conference the Society was following up and extending its exploration of the rôle played by the “service” legal adviser in the international field—a rôle which, as the present reviewer previously had occasion to point out in connection with the functions of legal advisers to governments and government departments, has certainly been neglected and, because neglected, to some extent misunderstood.

Litigation of contentious cases before the International Court of Justice has in some instances been a lengthy and comparatively expensive procedure. However, it is not necessarily the Court or its procedure that produces this situation, because governments parties to litigation sometimes feel it is important to retain a number of advocates to plead, and they agree on comparatively long periods for the preparation of written pleadings. Comparing this procedure with ad hoc arbitration before a referee and two arbitrators, the latter looks comparatively swift and inexpensive. However, there are as yet unused possibilities for the International Court to adjudicate cases on a basis comparable in time and expense to ad hoc arbitration. The use of the Court for what might be less important cases would also contribute to its institutional development.

The Board of Review and Development of the American Society of International Law met at Princeton, New Jersey, on June 2 and 3, 1967. This was the fifth meeting of this body since its establishment was authorized by the Executive Council of the Society in November, 1964. The Board devoted its June meeting primarily to discussion of interim reports of the panels working under the Board’s auspices. This note abstracts from the two days of deliberations various questions and problems in the sphere of international law that were identified as especially deserving of further analysis and research.

On September 20, 1967, the Governments of Denmark, Norway and Sweden instituted an action against Greece before the European Commission of Human Rights. The Netherlands took the same step on September 27, 1967. These proceedings were brought in response to a resolution adopted on June 23, 1967, by the Standing Committee of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe which, on behalf of the Assembly, expressed “the wish that the Governments of the Contracting Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights refer the Greek case, either separately or jointly, to the European Commission of Human Rights in accordance with Article 24 of the Convention.”

On April 21, 1967, a Western Regional Conference on "Science, Law and Industry in Transnational Business Transactions" was held at the University of Denver Law Center under the co-sponsorship of the American Society of International Law, the University of Denver College of Law, the University of Colorado School of Law, the Committee on World Peace Through Law of the Colorado Bar Association, the Inter-American Bar Association, the University of Denver Graduate School of International Studies, the United States Department of Commerce, and the International Law Society of the University of Denver.

It has long been recognized by students of international law that international legal rules may be significant issues in litigation before a municipal court. Three types of relationship of international law to municipal litigation may be observed: (1) those cases wherein the rules of international law are not germane; (2) those cases wherein the rules of international law, either conventional or customary, are a specific issue before the court and accordingly become part of the ratio decidendi of the court—the Sabbatino case is an example; and (3) those cases wherein international law rules are not a specific issue before the court but are part of the legal environment of the case. In these cases the court relies upon domestic law in its ratio deciderteli, but its cognizance of, or deference to, international law rules may either support or weaken international law. Although this note examines the third type of cases, the categories are not rigidly exclusive.

A computer-coded analysis of United Nations General Assembly resolutions is presently in progress at the University of Toledo College of Law for the purpose of studying systematically the law-making qualities of the resolutions. In the course of this project I also hope to develop some effective research tools for those who desire quick access to resolutions relating to particular substantive questions. The following information is being coded for each resolution : committee source ; operative words; references to geographic entities and co-ordinate and subsidiary organizational units ; and all citations of the U.N. Charter, the Statute and decisions of the I.C.J., General Assembly Eules of Procedure, and previous resolutions of the General Assembly and the various Councils. In addition, each resolution will be classified under one or more subject-matter headings and one or more of about twenty functional categories, such as “creation of committees,” “conciliation of a dispute,” and “interpretation of the U.N. Charter.” On the basis of this data, I intend to study such questions as the significance of re-citation of resolutions which purport to declare rules of law, and the frequency and quality of interpretations and elaborations of the U.N. Charter in the resolutions.

The United Nations Program of Assistance in the Teaching, Study, Dissemination and Wider Appreciation of International Law envisages, inter alia, the holding of regional training and refresher courses to he held every two years in rotation, in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In alternate years, regional seminars on a different level in which leading scholars and senior government officials from the region can discuss international or regional legal problems and legal matters before United Nations organs are similarly envisaged, in rotation, in Latin America, Africa and Asia, commencing in 1968.

The Institute of International Relations is a private research institute organized by scholars in the Republic of China. Its object is to study Chinese Communist affairs and other international problems. The Institute sponsors several seminars a year to discuss various problems of current international affairs. It publishes two monthly periodicals in Chinese: (1) Wen-t’i yü yen-chiù [Problems and Research] ; and (2) Fei-chin yiieh-pao [Chinese Communist Affairs Monthly]. In 1964, it began to publish an English monthly entitled Issues and Studies, which devotes most of its space to the analysis and study of Chinese Communists. The Institute also publishes books on various problems of Chinese Communists.

The first meeting of the A.B.A. National Institute on Marine Resources, sponsored by the Section of Natural Resources Law, was held in Long Beach, California, June 7-10, 1967. The program included the presentation of papers, panel discussions, and questions from the audience dealing with the following topics : United States policy regarding marine resources ; the administration of marine resources underlying the high seas; zones of national interest—a discussion of the need for revision of the Geneva Conventions; the administration of laws for the exploitation of offshore minerals in the United States; and the technological aspects of exploiting marine resources.