Book Review: World Peace through World Law
| Published date | 01 April 1959 |
| Date | 01 April 1959 |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711785900101106 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
ports,
use
of
foreign waters, custom-free zones, mining rights, military
baSeS,
acanal zone, demilitarised areas and oil pipelines. And
in
the latter
respec;!'
he tests the phenomena
in
the light
of
such notions as "
absolute"
(or"
real
)
rights
of
aterritorial
character-"
absolute"
in the jurisprudential sense
of
opposable
by
the State enjoying the right, not only to the sovereign
of
the
territo~
concerned, i.e. in personam, but to everybody, also to third States, whether
In
normal circumstances, in the occurrence
of
awar,
or
in
case
of
territorial
su~s
sion, at the same time freeing to acertain extent the territorial sovereign from
Its
normal responsibility for international delinquencies committed within
~he
territory concerned. In the course
of
his argument the author rightly restncts
the concept
of
international servitudes
by
eliminating all cases
in
which the burden
simply
flows
from an obligation under general international law (passage
over
international rivers or through the territorial sea) and, equally rightly,
ex~en~
it
beyond the requirement, often asserted by French doctrine, that an internatJo
na
servitude, by the State entitled to it, in order to be recognised as such, must
neces-
sarily imply the exercise
of
the governmental rights within the territory.
Utrecht. J. H. W. Verzijl.
World Peace through World Law. Granville Clark and Louis
B.
Sohn. Cambridge,
Mass., Harvard University Press. London, Oxford University, 60/-.
This
is
amost weighty and most important
"blue
print"
for the revision
of
the United Nations Charter.
It
is
startlingly radical but, since the
revolU-
tionary proposals are put forward by two eminent lawyers with wide practical
experience, Professor Clark in the practice
of
law, government service and
the
administration
of
Harvard University, and Professor Sohn as Professor of
International Law at Harvard and as awriter on International Law and Relations,
they cannot
be
dismissed as mere utopian dreaming.
In the first place the authors would limit the objective
of
the United
Natio~S
Organisation to one aim
only-the
maintenance
of
international peace.
ThiS
is
in
complete contrast to the rival school
of
thought which sees the U.N. deprived
of
any form
of
sanction fulfilling solely the role
of
amediator
in
internatio~al
disputes. The sphere
of
domestic jurisdiction would
be
wholly excluded from
ItS
competence.
The main features
of
the revised Charter would
be
:absolute prohibition
of
t~
use
of
force save
in
self defence
or
the enforcement
by
collective and individu
sanctions
of
that prohibition ;the compulsory jurisdiction in that sphere of
judicial tribunals
of
the U.N. ;the creation
of
an effective international
police
force and the complete disarmament
of
all States by carefully verified stages
and
subject to awater-tight system
of
inspection. The primary responsibility
for
carrying out this overriding, though limited, aim
is
vested
in
an Assembly
widely
different
in
structure and powers from the existing body and endowed
with
extensive legislative and executive powers. Not only would these powers
be
directed to the prevention and suppression
of
aggression but they would also
be
used for penalising individuals guilty
of
acts against the United Nations.
While the authors have stressed throughout that the proposed legislative powers
would
be
confined to the province
of
disarmament and the enforcement
of
peace,
they have perhaps not allowed for the fact that acompetence as wide as
th~t
they envisage might
well
result
in
interference with
"matters
of
domestiC
jurisdiction
".
This
is
particularly true with regard to the provisions governing
their proposed World Equity Tribunal, abody which would make,
in
general,
non-binding recommendations
in
relation to claims
of
anon-legal character
aimed at achange
of
existing law, but whose recommendations, if endorsed
by
a
very elaborately calculated majority
of
the General Assembly would become
binding and enforceable.
They furthermore suggest abasic change
in
the voting procedure, the replace-
ment
of
the existing one State, one vote
by
avote weighted
by
the size
of
the
population
of
the Member State. Thus India, China, the U.S.A., and
the
U.S.S.R., would have thirty
each;
France, Germany, Brazil, the United
King-
dom, Italy and Pakistan sixteen each ;Iceland and Luxembourg one.
578
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