The International Court of Justice issued three judgments in 2009: a final decision, of January 19, in Request for an Interpretation of the Judgment of 31 March 2004 in the Case Concerning Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v. United States of America) (Mexico v. United States); a final decision on the merits, of February 3, in Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine); and a final decision on the merits, of July 13, in Dispute Regarding Navigational and Related Rights (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua). In addition, the Court, on May 28, rejected a request by Belgium for the indication of provisional measures directed at Senegal in Questions Relating to the Obligation to Prosecute or Extradite (Belgium v. Senegal). The Court also issued orders fixing the time limits in several other pending cases.

Of the many post war problems of Europe few have presented such difficulty as the problem of Poland’s boundaries with Lithuania. Article 87 of the Treaty of Versailles reads in part, “The boundaries not laid down in the present treaty will be subsequently determined by the Principal Allied and Associated Powers.”

The bicentennial of the United States Constitution has been marked by much celebration and some stocktaking. The Framers have been fully—if not fulsomely—praised, and there appears to be general enthusiasm about the legacy they left us. However, as regards the constitutional dispositions for the conduct of foreign affairs, there appears to have been little attention to the Framers and little inclination to celebrate what they ordained. Few have taken this occasion to expose how we got where we are from where they were; efforts to take stock have been hampered by uncertainty and shouted down in controversy.

Switzerland’s neutrality, as exhibited during the present European conflict and also on the occasion of other wars of the past century, does not found itself simply upon principles of international law, but rests directly upon a series of explicit international and constitutional documents and is deeply interlocked with the historical development of the country and with the foundation and growth of its government. Differentiating itself widely from that attitude of mere aloofness exhibited by a nation which declines to join a struggle in which others may be engaged, Swiss neutrality is an essential element of the country’s governmental existence and is intended by the nature and sanctions of its origin to be as permanent as the nation itself. Such an aspect of neutrality is termed neutralization; though in origin quite dissimilar to that of Switzerland, this international quality was also characteristic, at the outbreak of the present war in 1914, of Belgium and Luxemburg, as well as of a variety of smaller governmental entities or adjuncts.