Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2017
The current international situation did not permit the Permanent Court of International Justice to resume its activities during the year 1942. Two cases are still pending before the court—the case relating to the Electricity Company of Sofia and Bulgaria and the Gerliczy Case—but no action was taken by the parties in either of them during the year. Nor was there the usual activity in connection with instruments relating to the court.
This is the twenty-first in the writer’s series of annual articles on the organization and work of the Permanent Court of International Justice, the publication of which was begun in this Journal, Vol. 17 (1923), p. 15.
1 League of Nations Document, C. 17. M. 17. 1942. V.
2 Records of Twentieth Assembly, Plenary, p. 6. The action of the Assembly had been forecast in the British House of Commons on Nov. 21, 1939. 353 House of Commons Debates (1939), c. 1179, 1184.
3 69 Gaceta Oficial de Venezuela (1941), pp. 133, 822–825.
4 Idem, pp. 130, 968.
5 Apparently, these treaties have not been registered at Geneva.
6 7 Department of State Bulletin (1942), p. 645.
7 The Times (London), July 30, 1942, p. 8.
8 The text of the recommendation was published by the Pan American Union in November, 1942.
9 28 American Bar Association Journal (1942), p. 716. See also, this Journal, Vol. 36 (1942), pp. 683–684. Resolutions had previously been adopted by the American Bar Association, in 1922, 1923, 1929, 1931, and 1934. See Hudson, In re the World Court (1934), pp. 15–16.
10 Meeting at Munich in 1883, the Institute of International Law appointed a committee to study the question of “a more universal, prompt and uniform publication” of treaty texte, and at Brussels in 1885 it adopted a voeu that the publication “be made as general and complete as possible,” in order that the texts might “furnish the science of international law with perfect and exact knowledge as to the legal relations” of States. It later envisaged the formation of an official international union for this purpose, but a diplomatic conference held at Berne in 1894 at which eighteen States were represented failed to arrive at any positive result. See Hudson, , “The Registration and Publication of Treaties,” this Journal, Vol. 19 (1925), pp. 273–292.Google Scholar
11 Down to May 1, 1942, 4811 principal instruments had been registered at Geneva. The publication of the monthly brochure entitled Registration of Treaties is being continued, No. 242 having recently appeared.
On Jan. 28, 1931, sixty teachers of international law and international relations in American universities urged the Department of State to inaugurate the practice of registering the treaties of the United States at Geneva. See Proceedings of the American Society of International Law, 1931, pp. 250–253. An arrangement to this end was concluded under Secretary Hull’s direction in January 1934. U. S. Executive Agreement Series, No. 70; this Journal, Vol. 28 (1934), pp. 342–345. Since that date American treaties have regularly been communicated to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations for registration; of the 54 treaties registered during the year 1941, 34 were communicated by the United States.
Procedure with respect to treaties of the United States was regularized by Departmental Order, No. 1078, of August 6, 1942, as follows: “The Chief Clerk and Administrative Assistant is authorized and directed to certify, without seal, for and in the name of the Secretary of State or the Acting Secretary of State, a copy of each treaty or convention proclaimed by the President on or after January 23, 1934, and likewise a copy of every other international agreement entered into by the United States with a foreign country on or after January 23, 1934, which when so certified will be forwarded by the Department to the American Minister at Bern for transmission by him to the Secretary General of the League of Nations for registration by the Secretariat of the League and publication in the League of Nations Treaty Series.” 7 Department of State Bulletin (1942), p. 692.