For a Worldwide Judiciary

When armed men are in action in Viet Nam and the Dominican Republic and standing guard on numberless borders (Berlin, Korea, etc.), it would seem an odd time to argue that international law is replacing international force. But Charles S. Rhyne, former president of the American Bar Association, is just that optimistic. Proudly, he points to the "lawyer-to-lawyer" movement that he launched in 1963 with an Athens conference of 1,000 lawyers from 105 countries. Last year he opened the World Peace Through Law Center in Washington, D.C. Now he is planning the first "World Law Day"--as part of a September conference in Washington that will muster 2,000 legal leaders from 120 countries and mine their ideas for "an overall world judicial system."

"Ours is becoming the golden age of the law," says Rhyne. Despite the U.N.'s political paralysis, its various subgroups have probably created more international law in the past 20 years than existed in all previous history. Most of it stems from sheer necessity, as trade and travel shrink the world. Hundreds of new agreements cover subjects ranging from space rights to the continental shelf, and the U.S. alone is party to more than 1,400 treaties involving everything from the nuclear test ban to the legal status of G.I.s in foreign lands.

Regional Justice. The world already has the bare bones of a judicial system. At the top is the International Court of Justice at The Hague, best known as the World Court, which aims to settle disputes between nations. But the court's 15 judges (elected by the U.N. from 15 different nations) cannot hear any case until the parties admit its jurisdiction, and the U.S. itself, despite growing opposition to its stand (TIME, May 7), reserves the right to ignore the court under the so-called Connally Amendment.

Outside the World Court, there are lesser but more productive international courts that link regional groups of like-minded countries. The European Court of Justice has now settled more than 1,000 disputes involving the affairs of the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community and Euratom. Today, individuals from 15 European countries can in some cases appeal beyond their own countries' highest courts to the European Human Rights Court. Set up in 1958 in Strasbourg, France, a commission of the Court has reviewed up to 2,000 complaints and passed on to the Court only two (it found for Ireland in one, against Belgium in the other).

One key obstacle to a coherent world system of law is the lack of a world legislature to codify international law so that courts can determine common principles. Still, there is progress. Relatively few U.S. law schools taught international law even five years ago; today 101 do. More and more U.S. legal scholars are researching precedents in a variety of fields from propaganda to sovereignty, showing clearly what international law holds in fact rather than theory.

Bread-and-Butter. Charles Rhyne is far from shouting against the wind. His Washington center, which he hopes to move next year to permanent European quarters, is now self-sustaining from dues paid by 2,000 members in 119 countries. A staff of 14 has more than 60 committees researching the legalities of such subjects as disarmament and world habeas corpus. One project: the first compilation of all major treaties now in effect across the world--something that new nations may find particularly useful. The center is also working on the first international guide to laws and courts, is circulating a proposed international convention on investment disputes, and is promoting the idea of a new appellate court below the World Court, which would tackle bread-and-butter fields from currency to copyrights.

To the Washington conference in September Rhyne has invited the top judicial officers of 120 countries to give them an opportunity to explore such ideas as a trial court and arbitration system more attuned to everyday problems than are the lofty international courts that now exist. Sure to be urged: a new international trial-court system to speed the meting out of justice in international disputes ranging from tariffs to taxes. If nothing else comes of the conference, such positive action is bound to boost the spirits of those dedicated men who are convinced that international peace will be a product of international law.

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