Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1960-05-01
FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE
The World Courts Role TODAY

torious United Nations, with Joseph
Stains Soviet Government and
several slave-owning, slave-im-
porting and slave-trading Arab
states in the van, took over from
the League of Nations, the Per-
manent Court of International
justice was liquidated and replaced
by new one, which was made
an integral part of the U. N. and
its principal judicial agency"
Present Members of Court
The new World Court. now
called the International Court of
Justice, was outwardly much the
same as its predecessor.
Currently it is presided over by
Justice Hedge Klaestad of Norway
and has altogether Is judges
elected for nine-year terms by the
General Assembly and the Secur-
ity Council of the U. N. Among
its present panel of judges is JUS
tice Green Haywood Hackworth
of the United States. Other judges
are from Argentina, Australia,
Belgium, China. Egypt, France.
Greece, Mexico, Pakisan, Panama,
the United Kingdom and Uruguay.
1t is still quartered in Office space
provided by the old Hague Arbi-
tration Court-now practically in
active-in it's Peace Palace near
The Hague Deer Park, and its
statutes were largely devised
along the lines of the defunct
League of Nations World Court.
In fact, however, the Anglo
American negotiators who had
hammered out the new arrange
ments in concert with Soviet rep
reSentatives, had been long on
hopes and short on wits, and had
handed over to the Soviets the
final say on whether any verdict
of the new World Court should be
carried out or was to be nullifled.
The painful demonstration Of
this feature of the U. N. World
Court was made at the expense Of
Great Britain, in the case of the
Corfu INNINGS.
On October %, 1916, two Brit
ish destroyers hit mines in the
Corfu Channel between Greece
and Albania, and "A British sail
ors lost their lives. England sued
Albania. whom she accused OF il
legally laying mines in interna-
tional waters, and was duly
awarded about 81 million at the
time in damages by the U. Ms
World Court. But when the Brit
ish sought to collect from the little
Communist country, they had to
apply TO the U. N. Security Coun-
Gil for an executory order-and
ran into a Soviet veto.
Submission of Problems
This unhappy British expert
ence with the new institution
the United Kingdom had been the
only power to adhere unreservedly
to the u. N. World Court-has
caused the United States Senate
to shy away from like plunge.
Similarly, Israel is reluctant to
submit to the U. N. World Court
her demands for free, unhindered
passage through the Suez Canal.
for fear lest a Soviet veto come
to becloud the legal right the
Israeli ships-together with the
ships of all the other countries in
the world-hold under the Con-
stantinople Convention Of 1888.
The result of it all is that the
u N. World Court, unable to sink
its teeth into any international
litigation of real import, is slowly
whitening on the vine. And, much
like the rest of the U. NJ, it has
developed a mild case of schizo-
phrenia, with high proclaimed
ideals and principles on the one
side, and the continuing negative
power of national sovereignties
influencing it's decision on the
other. The court has yet to achieve
judicial competence in a split
world.