Evening star., 1938-04-18
COURT IS SOUGHT
FOR THE AMERICAS
Farley at Lima Will Seek
New System for Settling
Controversies.

This is the second Of a series OF
articles on preparations for the
Eighth Pan-Amertcan Conference
at Lima, Peru, nert December)
BY CRESTON B. MULLINS.
A new attempt to create a system
Of judicial settlement for controversies
in the Western Hemisphere will be
made when the delegates of the 81
American republics gather at Lima,
Peru. next December for the Eighth
Pan-American Conference.
Fading memories of the failure 20
years ago of the first effort to pro-
vide an international court for Gen.
trail America, and reawakening Of the
American ideal under the stim-
illus of the American good neighbor'
policy spur hopes that the goal, to-
ward which desultory steps have been
taken for more than IS years, may
now be achieved.
With exception Of sporadic pro-
poeals at various American con-
ferences and the activities of deter
mined proponents. the idea Of an
tnter-American court Of justice Ian
guished after the Central American
court folded up in 1917, when the
United States refused to respect its
decision in suits by Costa Rica and
Salvador against Nicaragua
The Central American court had
been created in 1907 as part of peace
settlement in Washington between the
five tropical republics following many
years of war and revolution. Andrew
Carnegie endowed it with luxurious
peace palace and expectations were
high until Costa Rica and Salvador
charged Nicaragua with violating their
rights by conceding to the United
States in the Bryan -Chamorro treaty
of 1915 perpetual and exclusive rights
to construct canal by way of the
San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua
Decision Defied.
The court upheld the contentious
of the complaining states, but with
the support of the United States
Nicaragua refused to abide by the de-
clsion. These rights are still main
tanned, and agitation for building of
the canal has recently heen renewed.
. A project prepared by Dr. James
Brown Scott, secretary of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace,
Shortly after the war, echoed in the
presentation to four subsequent PAN
American conferences of plans for a
court with all the Americas for its
jurisdlction.
Costa Rica submitted its own project
at the fifth conference at Santiago.
Chile, in 1923. Colombia followed
suit at the sixth in Havana in 1928
and the Mexican code of peace intro
duced at the seventh in Montevideo
in 1888 included similar proposal
Projects submitted by Panama and
Peru at the Buenos Aires Peace Con-
ference in 1886, as we'll as an unofficial
plan prepared under the leadership
of DR.. Scott, were left for the Lima
conference. with the stipulation that
the governing board Of the Pan.
American Union was to make study
of the plans presented and report to
the conclave this year.
Agreement Seen.
A pan-American committee, com.
posed of ENJOYS in Washington from
Mexico, Panama and Chile, summed
up its work with the conclusion that
''in fundamentals as in matters Of de.
tail there is general agreement among
the advocates of the creation of an
iNtor- ~
that consequently the problem Of
drafting the statute Of such a court
should present little difficulty. The
problem, therefore, is not a technica
one, but rather one of policy, namely
whether the creation Of the inter-
American court Is desirable and ex-
pedient."
The various projects differ IN de-
tails, but are strikingly similar in
treatment of the three main prob
'lems-organ of the court, its
jurisdiction and procedure
There is general agreement on mem
bership for all the 81 republics, while
several plans envisage the presence
OF a Canadian member. Two Of them
would establish two courts. one Of
first instance and one of appeal, with
membership of each determined by
lot.
Three of the plans make the courts
jurisdiction compulsory over certain
enumerated classes of disputes; two
others would give it competence to
take cognizance of the enumerated
disputes, and the sixth provides that
compulsory jurisdiction would be con-
ferred by an optional declaration of
the kind provided in the World Court.
Plans Formulated.
The law to be applied is similar in
all six projects, that derived from in
ternatlonal conventions, international
custom, general principles of law rec
ogni7ed by civilized nations, and tu-
dicial decisions and teachings of the
most qualified publicists of the vari-
Gus nations. World Court rules Of
procedure would be followed.
DR.. Miguel Lopez Pumarejo, Co.
lombian minister to WASHINGTON, is
formulating another plan which NAV
be submitted to the Lima conference.
He favors a court system resembling
the american judicial system, with
several regional courts to try cases
IN flrst instance, and an all-American
court Of appeals. He would group