Evening star., 1936-09-15
BY BRENT DOW ALLINSON.

BY BRENT DOW ALLlNSON.
A few years after Gen. Bolivar's
, memorable manifesto of 1824-1826. at
Panama City, the Mexican govern
, ment proposed another inter-American
congress to consider the preparation
, of a code of public international law
! as the basic rule Of conduct IN the
: growing relations between the self
. governing American states.
. Mexico renewed the proposal in the
; latest pan-American conference, at
: Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1888, when
2 the suggestion for an international
, court of arbitral justice and code OF
law for the Americas was outlined and
. submitted to all the members OF the
: Pan-American Union. Mexico thus
!. was renewing the initiative which led
7 to the notable inter-American con-
: ,ferences of 1847, 1861 and 1857 at
, Lima, Peru.
= Our Mexican War and the War
I. Between the States prevented the
United States Government from TAX
e ing part in these significant confer
! ences, and thus greatly retarded codi-
fication of international law and the
5 realization of the an-American ideal.
: But the idea would not die, and the
+. effort to fulfill 1t was never entirely
!, abandoned.
Seven Propose Court.
: Now, in preparing the official pro-
gram of the coming conference at
l Buenos Aires, no less than seven Amer
ican republics-Panama, Guatemala,
> Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Cuba and Ell
! Salvador-are proposing a permanent
pan-American court Of justice, for set
: tlement of justiciable controversies and
: the Interpretation and codification OF
!. international law. Curiously enough,
however, little is being said about who
!. shall make and modify the law which
! the court, if established, is to interpret
, and apply. A court without con-
gress is like an actor without play.
J Nobody can know what it may do Or
say. But are the American states
ripe for an American govern
ment? Some of them certainly are.
The Second OF the modern Pam
Z American Conferences met at Mexico
r City in 1902, and adopted a con-
{ vention for the formation of codes
/ Of public and private international
law. But the committee OF jurlSts,
, provided for in the convention, was
/. not appointed, since the convention
was ratified by only five of the states.
The Third Pan-American Conference
: met at Rio de Janeiro in 1905 and
concluded a convention to establish an
International Commission of Jurists,
composed of one representative Of each
: signatory state, charged with prepar-
: ing drafts of codes of public and pri-
vate international law. Its first meet
\ ing was in 1912. Committees were
/ created to do preparatory work and to
formulate projects for consideration OF
the commission at its second meet
ing, which was fixed for June, 1914.
The World War prevented this meet
ing and 1t was not until 1928, when
8 the Fifth Pan-American Conference
: was held. that the next step toward
codiflcation was taken.
The fifth conference adopted res
olution providing for appointment Of
two delegates by each American re-
public, to constitute an enlarged Com
mission Of Jurists Of Rio de Janeiro.
This commission met in 1927. The
American Institute of International
Law, which had been invited to pre-
pare preliminary projects of conven-
tions, presented number of legal
rules or formulae, which, taken as
a whole, embrace a considerable
portion Of the international law Of
peace. These drafts were presented,
after a number of changes and
amendments, to the Sixth Pan
American Conference, which met in
Havana in 1923.
Twelve Projects Presented.
Twelve projects of public interna-
tional law and code Of private in
ternational law were presented and
seven conventions, based upon the
projects of the Commission of Jurists,
were adopted, covering the following
subjects: D Asylum, CD Consular
Agents, 90 Diplomatic Officers, (4)
Maritime Neutrality. (5) Rights and
Duties of States in the event Of Civil
Strife, (6) Status Of Aliens. (0
Treaties.
Mr.. Sydney Gest, an attorney, of
Washington and Philadelphia, who is
an expert in these matters connected
with the Commission of Jurists and
the Pan-American Union, stated
recently to the writer:
"A code of private international law
was submitted by the International
Commission of Jurists to the Sixth
Conference and was adopted by
that body. 1t is officially known