Ancient Goal

In the city where civilization first fashioned an international rule of law, a small group of lawyers and jurists last week sought to write new laws for an age that seeks that ancient and still distant goal: world peace. The Rome meeting was called the European Conference of World Peace Through the Rule of Law, and was the fourth and final "continental" gathering (the others were held in Costa Rica, Japan and Nigeria) in preparation for a worldwide rule of law conference planned for New Delhi next year.

The 150-page working paper had already gone through 17 drafts during discussions by more than 1,000 lawyers from 79 nations. In Rome, 32 delegates from 24 nations (including the Soviet Union) gave their approval to the document. Said U.S. Observer Charles S. Rhyne, past president of the American Bar Association and current chairman of its special Committee on World Peace Through the Rule of Law: "It's the best statement of international law that exists." But lip service to international law is scant guarantee of international peace, said Rhyne. "unless a structure is created permitting the peaceful settlement of disputes." Otherwise, "it seems inevitable that the gargantuan military establishments created for our protection, and which are suspended over all of us like a sword of Damocles, may ultimately be used for our mutual destruction ... It is an unfortunate truth of our era that at a time of so many spectacular achievements, the area of knowledge of how to replace force with law is, in fact, the world's greatest underdeveloped area." Contributing little toward correcting such backwardness was Soviet Delegate Victor Chkhikhvadze, vice president of the Law Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, who seized the occasion to plug Moscow's proposals for total uninspected disarmament. Nevertheless, there was unanimous approval of the conference's consensus report, which urged the acceptance of international law by the world community, agreement by all nations of compulsory jurisdiction by the International Court of Justice,-- and establishment of an expanded world court system to include regional and specialized tribunals.

-- Of 107 states involved, only 39 accept the World Court's compulsory jurisdiction. Many of these 39, said British Delegate Lord Shawcross, "including the U.S., have attached reservations which make their acceptance, to say the least, less than fully effective."

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