Key Briefs

Without the high jinks and foofaraw that accompany most national conventions, the American Bar Association last week gaveled open its 85th annual meeting, settled down in San Francisco to the serious examination of the state of the law in the U.S. and the prospects for extending the rule of law throughout the world. Key briefs from some key speakers:

sbSUPREME COURT JUSTICE WILLIAM BRENNAN JR. called for an International Court of Habeas Corpus which would contribute to world peace by "repudiating, through an enforceable international rule of law, systematic and deliberate denial of human rights. Our time has known in full measure the tragedy suffered by countless human beings over the face of the globe who, deprived of their liberty without accusation, without trial, upon nothing but the arbitrary fiat of a sovereign government, have been helpless to challenge their detention in a world forum."

sb JOHN C. SATTERFIELD, outgoing A.B.A. president, criticized the U.S. Supreme Court for decisions that expose "the individual to a much wider degree of judicial supervision and governmental regulation than has been the case in the past . . . There is real danger that the states will soon be placed in a straitjacket of federal conformity extending far beyond the prohibitions placed by the states in the Bill of Rights against actions by the central Government ... It would seem that practically the only area remaining even partially free from some kind of regulation by the central Government is that of purely private relations between citizen and citizen."

sb CHARLES S. RHYNE, onetime A.B.A. president (TIME cover, May 5, 1958), defended the court against Satterfield's argument. "In a troubled world," said he, "the Supreme Court decisions protecting individual rights are like a beacon of light to all enslaved people and those suffering from deprivations of individual liberty. In my travels I have found that the thing which people in other lands admire most in the U.S. is that we are constantly strengthening individual rights. And the chief evidence cited is always decisions of the Supreme Court."

To become the new president of the association, the lawyers last week inaugurated Sylvester C. Smith Jr., a onetime "country lawyer" in New Jersey who is now general counsel of the Prudential Insurance Co. of America. A robust deep-water sailor (he races a 43-ft. auxiliary sloop), Smith is the first corporate counsel ever to serve as A.B.A. president, as well as the oldest ever chosen; he will be 68 this month. Biggest item on Smith's agenda for 1963: an international conference--to be held probably in India--aimed at the A.B.A.'s goal, "World Peace Through World Law."

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