In his State of the Union Message on January 9, 1959, President Eisenhower declared his purpose of intensifying efforts “to the end that the rule of law may replace the rule of force in the affairs of nations” and of making proposals for “a re-examination of our own relation to the International Court of Justice.”

The thirty-seventh year of the World Court—the thirteenth year of the International Court of Justice—has been partially devoid of exciting news. Aside from the meeting for swearing the new members of the Court, and for the election of officers of the Court, there was no meeting of the Court until September 25, 1958.

At its 681st meeting on October 25, 1957, the Fourth Committee of the General Assembly adopted a resolution which provided in part as follows:

The Fourth Committee

The operation of public international organizations and the development of that sector of substantive international law which such organizations administer require that an effective mechanism exist for the authoritative interpretation of their basic instruments.

Since the end of the first "World War—an event widely considered to mark a turning point in the development of international law—several suggestions have been made to negotiate a multilateral treaty aimed at the protection of private foreign investment.