The International Conference of American States on Conciliation and Arbitration, which met in Washington from December 10, 1928, to January 5, 1929, was characterized by one of the delegates to the conference as the Locarno of the New World. Shortly after the signing of the General Pact for the Renunciation of War, we find the nations of the Western Hemisphere taking the logical next step of providing machinery for the pacific settlement of all international disputes. “ It is quite obvious that it is not sufficient to renounce war, unless we are ready to have recourse to the processes of peace.” Here is concrete evidence of the good faith of the American Republics to provide a clean-cut substitute for war as an instrument of national policy. The necessity for the development of machinery for international pacific settlement has been demonstrated to the present generation by the fact that the whole nature of the institution of war changed whenman became a scientist, an engineer, and a mechanic. Mass production, under the stimulus of intensive research, has madepossible the production of instruments of destruction which threaten to destroy civilization, unless international social relations can be brought within the control of law. While President-elect Hoover was making his good-will, personal-relations tour in South America, eminent jurists from twenty of the American Republics were meeting in Washington to set up the framework for the stabilization of international relations.

The law of unneutral service deals with those acts of neutral vessels which constitute assistance to a belligerent, significant enough in consequences to give the offender a hostile character. It must be emphasized that, contrary to the inferences of some writers, unneutral service has nothing to do with acts committed by a hostile state. There are rules dealing with such acts, but they are not comprehended within the meaning of the term which is the subject of this discussion.

The International Law Commission of the United Nations held its third session at Geneva, Switzerland, from May 16 to July 27, 1951. In the course of fifty-three meetings, the Commission completed its work on the following items: (1) reservations to multilateral conventions; (2) question of defining aggression; and (3) preparation of a draft code of offenses against the peace and security of mankind. It also concluded the first phase of a review of its Statute. In the field of the codification of international law, the Commission undertook further consideration of the topics of (1) law of treaties and (2) regime of the high seas. It also decided to initiate work on the topics of “nationality, including statelessness” and “regime of territorial waters,” and appointed Judge Manley 0. Hudson and Professor J. P. A. Frangois special rapporteurs, respectively, for these topics. The actions (including some of an administrative character) taken by the Commission are set forth in a report to the General Assembly.

A computer-coded analysis of United Nations General Assembly resolutions is presently in progress at the University of Toledo College of Law for the purpose of studying systematically the law-making qualities of the resolutions. In the course of this project I also hope to develop some effective research tools for those who desire quick access to resolutions relating to particular substantive questions. The following information is being coded for each resolution : committee source ; operative words; references to geographic entities and co-ordinate and subsidiary organizational units ; and all citations of the U.N. Charter, the Statute and decisions of the I.C.J., General Assembly Eules of Procedure, and previous resolutions of the General Assembly and the various Councils. In addition, each resolution will be classified under one or more subject-matter headings and one or more of about twenty functional categories, such as “creation of committees,” “conciliation of a dispute,” and “interpretation of the U.N. Charter.” On the basis of this data, I intend to study such questions as the significance of re-citation of resolutions which purport to declare rules of law, and the frequency and quality of interpretations and elaborations of the U.N. Charter in the resolutions.

The International Law Commission held its fifty-seventh session in Geneva from May 2 to June 3, and from July 11 to August 5, 2005. The Commission continued its work on shared natural resources, reservations to treaties, responsibility of international organizations, unilateral acts of states, and fragmentation of international law. It began work on the effect of armed conflict on treaties and expulsion of aliens, and decided to begin work next year on the obligation to prosecute or extradite. It took no further action for the time being on diplomatic protection or on international liability for transboundary harm, pending the receipt of comments from governments on the texts adopted on first reading in 2004.

Over the summer of 2018, trade relations between the United States and many of its trading partners continued to be marked by tensions. The United States and China ratcheted up their use of tariffs against each other. The United States both received and initiated requests for consultation with various countries at the World Trade Organization (WTO) related to its earlier steel and aluminum tariffs and to tariffs imposed in response by other countries. President Trump has continued to pursue the possibility of further tariffs, including with respect to automobile and uranium imports. The United States also escalated trade tensions with Turkey through various measures, explicitly linking some of these measures to Turkey's detainment of an American pastor. Despite the broader theme of tensions, negotiations have proved productive between the United States and two of its major trading partners—the European Union and Mexico—paving a way for future settlements. With the European Union, the Trump administration has reached a tentative understanding and agreed not to impose new tariffs while the parties negotiate toward finalizing this understanding. As to Mexico, in late August 2018 the Trump administration announced that the two countries had reached agreement with respect to many issues underlying their ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations.