In a noteworthy decision, rendered after the outbreak of the present war, relief pendente lite was granted by the Permanent Court of International Justice (as distinguished from its President) for the first time since the Court was established. A review of recent developments affecting that aspect of the administration of international justice according to law will therefore be timely.

The Franco-Turkish dispute over the Sanjak of Alexandretta presents another notable case of the consequences of the acceptance of an imperfect settlement at Lausanne between the Allies and Turkey following the first World War. The most important dispute that arose from the Lausanne settlement related to the Vilayat of Mosul, a district comprising the whole northern section of Iraq and valuable for its oil and strategic position, in which Turkey challenged Great Britain's interests and prestige in Iraq.That dispute was successfully settled by the Council of the League of Nations in 1925 in favour of Iraq. Ten years later another dispute arose from the imperfect settlement of Lausanne which concerned this time Turkey's frontiers with Syria. By then the international situation had deteriorated and the League's prestige was undermined. France, the Mandatory Power for Syria, was in need of Turkey's friendship and consequently her bargaining position was weaker. The dispute was eventually won by Turkey.

The procedural aspects of international arbitration have largely been neglected. Tribunals are prone to borrow their rules of procedure from one another without considering their suitability for the particular arbitration at hand. Time rarely permits then to act otherwise in the hurry and pressure attendant upon the opening of an arbitration. Agents and counsel are anxiously preparing their cases and awaiting the opening of oral arguments. During the course of the arbitration the ever-nearing date fixed for its completion, the mounting expense of maintaining the staffs, and the burdens of other official duties awaiting the arbitrators and advocates upon the completion of their tasks all tend to discourage the deliberate consideration of procedural problems.Though the need for procedural reform was long ago recognized, the problem has received relatively little attention from writers.

The U.S.S.R. is destined to play a decisive role in establishing an effective international organization of security. Therefore a summary of current trends of thought and attitudes in the Soviet Union is here presented, reflecting its foreign policy and its views on the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals, the Bretton Woods Articles of Agreement, the legal status of the Polish Govemment-In-Exile, the treatment of Germany, the Chicago Civil Aviation Conference, the legal status of the Atlantic Charter and the situation in the Far East.

If a defeated Japan is to be “ pared back to her volcanic core,” China will be a prime beneficiary. The Cairo Declaration promised to return to her Formosa, the Pescadores, and Manchuria. But what of those parts of the Japanese colonial empire which were not Chinese? Some other arrangements must be made for Korea and the Japanese mandated islands. Liquidation of Italy's African empire raises similar questions.

The inter-American system, initiated in 1826 at Panama with the First Congress of American States called by Sim6n Bolivar, the Liberator, and definitely established in 1899 by the First International Conference of American States at Washington, has experienced throughout its long history a sound, steady growth. No system of international organization in the world can claim a similar record. In spite of great obstacles encountered at various times, the inter-American system has made continuous progress and has emerged with greater strength after passing through each of its many stages of gradual development.

According to the Declaration made at Berlin on June 5, 1945, by the Governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom, and the Provisional Government of the French Republic, these Governments have assumed “ supreme authority with respect to Germany including all the powers possessed by the German Government, the high command, and any state, municipal, or local government or authority.” This means that the German territory, together with the population residing on it, has been placed under the sovereignty of the four powers. It means further that the legal status of Germany is not that of “ belligerent occupation” in accordance with the Articles 42 to 56 of the Regulations annexed to the Hague Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land of 1907. After Germany's unconditional surrender and especially after the abolition of the last German Government, the Government of Grand Admiral Doenitz, the status of belligerent occupation has become impossible. This status presupposes that a state of war still exists in the relationship between the occupant state and the state whose territory is under belligerent occupation. This condition implies the continued existence of the state whose territory is occupied and, consequently, the continued existence of its government recognized as the legitimate bearer of the sovereignty of the occupied state. This is the reason why it is generally assumed that belligerent occupation does not confer upon the occupant power sovereignty over the occupied territory. By belligerent occupation the legitimate government is made incapable of exercising its authority and is only substituted for the period of occupation by the authority of the occupant power. The legitimate government of the occupied state, especially the head of the state, may be expelled from the occupied territory and may have established his seat on the territory of an ally; the government, and especially the head of the occupied state, may even be made prisoners of war. But the government must continue to exist and must be recognized as such by the occupant power. The latter must be willing to conclude with this government a treaty of peace and to hand back to it the whole or a part of the occupied territory.