THE LAW: The Work of Justice

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Economic Magna Carta. But there are far more positive ways by which the rule of law can be extended to world affairs. Much of the turmoil in modern international relations comes from the fact that new nations, arising from the ruins of colonialism, require capital for their national development, but are afraid of the political dependence that goes with it. Lawyers ask: Why not an international agreement that sets down the political rights and the economic responsibilities of the borrowers? Last year, speaking at the International Industrial Development Conference in San Francisco. German Banker Hermann Abs issued a ringing call for economic order through law. Such order, said Abs, can be achieved only through "an international convention by which all contracting parties, both typical capital-export and capital-import countries, undertake to treat foreign capital and other foreign interests fairly and without discrimination.

"Such a convention, which I may call a Magna Carta for the protection of foreign interests, should provide for a special international court of arbitration, which would determine whether cases brought before it involve violation of principles. I could well imagine that in case of particularly serious violations, the court of arbitration will be entitled by the terms of the treaty to oblige the member countries to refuse new private or public loans and credits to the country in default." The Universal Instinct. Through such efforts toward an orderly system that satisfies the principles held in common by most nations, a rule of law can be established that exerts its force even on the legal outlaws who this week celebrate May Day in their own way. More and more, as men of law become familiar with the legal systems of other nations, they find—often to their astonishment—that there are indeed basic common values. Impressive evidence of this fact is found by Assistant U.S. Attorney General George Cochran Doub through his experience in handling U.S. Government litigation in the courts of Western Europe. "We find that each legal principle we know seems available in the same or other terms in the civil law countries." says Doub. "And so, may I suggest that no country has a monopoly upon right or equity, and that the instinct of justice is universal?"

To lead the way toward a rule of law, to discover the principles basic to all free men. to apply to those principles the lessons of experience and the guide of reason is the great task of lawyers. It was in that spirit and toward that end that the president of the American Bar Association conceived of Law Day, U.S.A. "The atomic and hydrogen bombs." says Charles Rhyne, "have attuned the people of the world to an overwhelming desire for peace, which is probably stronger than any such desire in all history.

"Here a great opportunity will be won or lost—an opportunity to ensure peace under law. We lawyers must write the necessary legal machinery. To do this we must evaluate world law and develop new international legal machinery to maintain essential national sovereignty, yet provide for the peaceful settlement of disputes between nations under the rule of law." So doing, the U.S. could build on the experience of the past and the possibilities of the present to ensure a peaceful future.