National Affairs: A WORLD OF GROWTH, A WORLD OF LAW

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"One of the great purposes of this Administration," wrote the President just before taking off on his global tour, "is to advance the rule of law in the world." Last week at India's Delhi University, he spoke to the "great purpose." Excerpts:

A WORLD of swift economic transformation and growth must also be a world of law. The time has come for mankind to make the role of law in international affairs as normal as it is now in domestic affairs.

Of course the structure of such law must be patiently built, stone by stone. The cost will be a great deal of hard work, both in and out of government, particularly in the universities of the world.

Plainly, one foundation stone in this structure is the International Court of Justice. It is heartening to note that a strong movement is afoot in many parts of the world to increase acceptance of the obligatory jurisdiction of that court. I congratulate India on the leadership and vision she has shown in her new declaration [Sept. 14] accepting its jurisdiction.

Another major stone in the structure of international rule by law must be a body of international law adapted to the changing needs of today's world. There are dozens of countries which have attained their independence since the bulk of existing international law was evolved.

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What is now needed is to infuse into international law the finest traditions of all the great legal systems of the world.

And here the universities of the world can be of tremendous help in gathering and sifting and harmonizing them into a universal law. A reliable framework of law grounded in the general principles recognized by civilized nations is of crucial importance in all plans for rapid economic development around the earth. Economic progress has always been accompanied by a reliable legal framework.

Law is not a concrete pillbox in which the status quo is armed and entrenched. On the contrary, a single role of law, the sanctity of contract, has been the vehicle for more explosive and extensive economic change in the world than any other factor. The principle that men must keep bargains is a fundamental of every great legal system the world has ever known.

Whenever it has broken down, commerce, invention, investment and economic progress have also broken down.

One final thought on the rule of law between nations: we will all have to remind ourselves that under this system of law, one will sometimes lose as well as win. But nations can endure and accept an adverse decision rendered by competent and impartial tribunals.

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In hundreds of arbitral and judicial decisions over the past 170 years, it has been almost unheard of for one of the parties to refuse to comply with the decision of a tribunal once it has been rendered. This is so, I believe, for one good reason: if an international controversy leads to armed conflict, everyone loses; if armed conflict is avoided, everyone wins. It is better to lose a point now and then in an international tribunal and gain a world in which everyone lives at peace under a rule of law.