THE LAW: Friends of the World Court

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The U.S. joined the International Court of Justice in 1945. but under the Connally Reservation* it sharply hedged its membership in 1946 by reserving the right to label any dispute "domestic" and therefore beyond the jurisdiction of the court. That self-judging escape clause cripples the court and mocks the professed U.S. goal of a world rule of law. Last week a group of prominent Americans launched a campaign of public education and debate aimed at repeal of the Connally Reservation by the Senate next year.

With New York's distinguished Judge Learned Hand as honorary chairman, the Committee for Effective Use of the International Court includes Educator James B. Conant, former Air Force Secretary Thomas K. Finletter, Dean of Harvard Law School Erwin N. Griswold, Red Cross President Alfred M. Gruenther, and Chase Manhattan Bank Chairman John J. McCloy. "We have a choice between timidity and accepting the responsibility of world leadership," said Chairman Robert Dechert, former Defense Department counsel. "As it stands now, the fundamental evil of the Reservation is that it has provided an excuse for saying that not even the U.S., the leader of the free world, is wholehearted in its support of international judicial processes."

The Manhattan-based committee will press at both political conventions for platform planks pledging repeal. Already on record favoring repeal of the Reservation are President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, Secretary of State Herter, ex-President Truman, Adlai Stevenson, and all Democratic presidential candidates except Lyndon Johnson.