The decision of the International Court of Justice in the North Sea Continental Shelf Cases is surely one of the most interesting as well as debatable decisions in the history of the Court. It deals with certain aspects of one of the most important new developments of international law, the doctrine of the Continental Shelf. It also touches on some basic problems of the sources of international law. Among the matters dealt with, in greater or lesser detail, by the Court are the formation of custom in contemporary conditions, the effect of custom upon treaty and, in turn, the possible translation of principles formulated in a multilateral treaty, into universal custom. Above all, the Court was compelled to formulate certain principles of general equity as applicable to the delimitation of the continental shelves between three of the coastal states of the North Sea. It is this attempt of the Court to formulate the general principles of equity applicable to a fair allocation of the resources of the Continental Shelf between neighbors with which the present article will be mainly concerned.

In the evolution of United Nations peacekeeping, the United. Nations Emergency Force, which was created in 1956 and withdrawn from the Middle East in 1967, is of special importance. The UNEF is now the archetype for peacekeeping based on the “consent” of the state on whose territory a United Nations force is stationed; and this concept of consent has become the central characteristic of United Nations peacekeeping. It has been the heart of the peacekeeping capacity that has devolved on the General Assembly acting through its “Uniting for Peace” procedure, and it has been a primary element in the legal and political foundation of peacekeeping forces authorized on the basis of Security Council resolutions.

The Security Council resolution of November 22, 1967, seems to provide for a satisfactory solution of the Middle East controversy, and it is difficult to see how there can be a satisfactory settlement except on the basis of the principles on which that resolution is based. The preamble of that resolution states three fundamental principles.

On Sunday evening of March 31, 1968, millions of Americans watched President Lyndon Johnson announce a major bombing halt in the hostilities in Viet-Nam and his intention not to seek re-election as President. At the same time a reception was being held in the United States Ambassador’s official residence in Mexico City in honor of Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who took leave from the many guests to listen to the President’s address.

The use of opium originally prevailed only among vagrants and disreputable persons, who occasionally associated together for the purpose of partaking of this substance, but since it has extended itself among the members and descendants of reputable families, students, and officers of government, many of whom are so infatuated in their attachment to the drug as to make habitual use of it.

At the direction of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, a questionnaire survey of the membership was made in the Spring of 1969. This report summarizes the information and data received in 2,492 questionnaires returned. Over 55% of the Society’s members responded to the survey.

The material for this section is compiled by Stephen L. Gibson, attorney in the Office of the Legal Adviser, Department of State.