Harvard Law School - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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are, however, some dangers in the enthusiasm of some of the professional asso- ciations. No one should be in ally doubt that the work of codification will be slow, and often discouraging. The essential political and economic differences between nations are apparent to everyone. These differences find their reflection in legal problems as well. The danger lies in the too easy disillusion which so often succeeds too easy diseouragement. YVe have already seen this in those members of the public who made up their minds that the United Nations was finished because the Security Council had not solved all of the problems of the peace in the first month of its existence. The General Assembly was well aware of the need for diligent planning. At its New York session it set up a colnmittee of 17 states with a carefully defined mandateg the committee is called upon to study the methods by which the General Assembly should encourage 'thc progressive development of inter- national law and its eventual codifieation, methods of securing the cooperation of the several organs of the United Nations, and methods of enlisting the assist- ance of national and international bodies. ln addition to its consideration of methods, the committee is called upon to consider plans for the formulation of two substantive problems, one the draft Declaration on the Rights and Duties of States submitted by Panama, and the other the principles applied by 'the Nuremberg Tribunal. The committee has no general mandate to go into tl1e whole field of international law and its codifieation. It has enough 011 its agenda for a serious beginning. When the Charter was in the process of adoption, there was some doubt as to whether its basis would be purely political or whether the rule of law would be brought into its framework. The proponents of law won out. The first paragraph of the first Article now proclaims as one of the purposes of the United Nations the settlement of international disputes 'Gin conformity with the principles of justice and international law. The General Assembly is authorized to initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codihcation. The inter- national law of the past was as weak and as fragmentary as international society was disorganized and unstable. The nations are now attempting to build an integrated and secure community. The authors of tl1e Charter and the members of the General Assembly have shown that they know that such a community must be based on a sound and workable legal system. 19

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