NEW BLOOD FOR WORLD COURT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 308, 27 November 1936, Page 12

NEW BLOOD FOR WORLD COURT.

(By Richard Mantle.) So much happened at the recent Seventeenth Assembly of the League of Nations that it is not altogether surprising that the election of three new Judges to sit on the bench of the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague attracted comparatively little attention. Yet the choice of successors to the three Judges who have recently either died or retired was an episode of considerable importance. The World Court has proved one of the most successful of the instruments created in connection with the League system for the substitution of law for war in international affairs. In its short life it has successfully settled some sixty disputes between great and small Powers. It has established for itself a reputation for strict impartiality, which has led more than forty countries to accept in advance its compulsory jurisdiction. Obviously, if this reputation is to be maintained, the right type of Judges must be chosen whenever vacancies occur on the bench at the Peace Palace.

In practice, what at first sight appears to be a rather complicated system of electing the Judges has been found to work very well. Lists of candidates are submitted by various classes of national groups. The actual elections are carried out by the Assembly and the Council of the League of Nations, meeting separately but simultaneously The elected candidates are those who obtain an absolute majority both in the Council and the Assembly.

The prestige and influence of the World Court are likely to be fully maintained by the new Judges who will take their seats at the next session. Mr Manley Hudson, who may be regarded as the successor of Mr Frank Kellogg, is perhaps the foremost authority in the United States of America on the subject of the Permanent Court of International Justice. His writings on the Court and development of international law are justly looked upon as classics. Mr Hammarskjold is a familiar figure at Geneva, where he has been a pillar of the legal section of the League Secretariat. All who know him are convinced that both by temperament and training he is admirably fitted to step into the shoes of Dr. Walter Schucking, the late German Judgo. The last member of the trio to be elected is Dr. Cheng Tien Hsi, who has been serving as Counsellor to the Nanking Government. But ho may be said to be steeped in British legal tradition, for lie was connected with Loudon University and is a member of the English Bar.