The International Law Commission held its second session in Geneva from June 5 to July 29, 1950. Two members were absent and the Soviet member, Professor Koretsky, withdrew when the Commission refused to exclude the member who was a national of China. The Chairman ruled, and was upheld by the Commission, that Mr. Koretsky’s proposal was out of order since the members of the Commission serve in a personal capacity and not as representatives of governments. Professor Georges Scelle was elected Chairman.

On the agenda were several topics, the treatment of which can only be briefly noted here. The General Assembly had asked the International Law Commision to formulate the principles of international law recognized in the Charter and in the judgment of the Nürnberg Tribunal. The Commission took the view that its task was not to express any appreciation of the Nürnberg principles as principles of international law, but merely to formulate them in accordance with instructions. Seven principles were stated and were referred back to the General Assembly.

Coincident with the outbreak of the “cold war” the Soviet Union began a series of propagandistic attacks on the United States, its leaders and its policies, using every medium of communication for this purpose, but with special emphasis on radio propaganda. For some time the United States Government suffered these attacks to go unanswered, but in February, 1947, the “Voice of America” began to include among its other foreign programs regular broadcasts in Russian to the Soviet Union. At first these programs were confined almost entirely to music and straight news reports, but gradually more and more time was devoted to answering Soviet attacks considered hostile to the United States or harmful to its national interests.

In retaliation Moscow, on April 24, 1949, embarked on a vast effort to jam the American programs, and is at present devoting over 1000 broadcasting stations to this single purpose. The American Government protested through diplomatic channels and to the International Telecommunications Union against this jamming campaign. Furthermore, jamming was condemned by the United Nations Sub-Commission on Freedom of Information and of the Press at its Montevideo meeting in May, 1950, as a violation of accepted principles of freedom of information. Also, the Economic and Social Council, at its eleventh session, held in Geneva during the summer of 1950, adopted a resolution recommending to the General Assembly that it call on all Members to refrain from jamming.

The order of the International Court of Justice, under date of July 5, 1951, in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company Case, has raised a number of interesting questions of law and procedure in respect to which there appears to be considerable controversy.

The Judgment of November 20,1950, of the International Court of Justice in the Colombian-Peruvian Asylum Case provides a noteworthy illustration of the judicial technique employed in making a determination as to the existence or non-existence of a rule of customary international law in a particular case.

A landmark of the law of naturalization in the United States, established by the Supreme Court after a tortuous course of decision, has now found legislative confirmation in a provision in the Internal Security Act of 1950.

The oath of petitioners for naturalization provided for in §4 (3) of the Act of 1906 required a declaration of willingness “to support the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and bear true faith and allegiance to the same”; and the Act provided that the naturalization court must be satisfied that during his residence the petitioner has behaved as a man “attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same.”

For some years the question was put to petitioners, “If necessary, are you willing to take up arms in defense of this country?” A negative answer to this question led to a denial of the petition in U. S. v. Schwimmer (1929), 279 U. S. 644. This was followed in U. S. v. Macintosh (1931), 283 U. S. 589, and U. S. v. Bland (1931), 283 U. S. 636. Despite these decisions, no change was made in the required oath when the Nationality Act was revised in 1940. Yet the three earlier decisions were overruled in U. S. v. Girouard (1946), 328 U. S. 61, on the ground that the required oath might properly be taken by a person unwilling on religious grounds to bear arms.

The relation of municipal law to international law is properly a subject of inquiry by both practitioners and theoreticians. That all the questions which arise in this connection have not been settled will appear from continuing discussions concerning monism and dualism, the concept of domestic jurisdiction questions, and the doctrine of self-executing treaties. Cases of clear conflict between national law in the form of statutes and that which comprises international obligations tend to receive much publicity, and properly so. The extent to which there has been conformity of national legislation to customary international law and treaties seems to have received less attention. Techniques used to secure such conformity will appear to some extent from the manner in which statute-makers have by express provisions taken cognizance of the law of nations in written or unwritten form.

The Fourth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of American States took place in Washington from March 26 to April 7, 1951. This meeting, reasonably successful, again reflected the general world situation, the status of development of the Pan American idea and the crucial problem of the relations, within Pan America, of this country toward Latin America.