In more than one sense the European Communities are a frontier land of modern international organization. One aspect of the work of the European Economic Community which has thus far escaped the attention lavished on other facets is the multi-pronged effort to reduce the differences among the national laws of the member states. Stated more affirmatively, this is an effort to make the national legal systems of the member states more similar, to “assimilate” them. This effort has much in common with the “uniform law” movement in the United States and with the “unification-of-law” movement which has flourished on the Continent in this century. But it differs from these “uniformity” and “unification” movements in at least two respects

It is sometimes stated that the question of state succession to treaties is a question more of treaty interpretation than of the existence or otherwise of general rules of law concerning the fate of treaties upon change of sovereignty. In general terms the proposition is true: a customary rule favoring or negativing devolution would tend to be either excessively comprehensive or excessively restrictive with respect to the category of treaties whose fate is in issue. Many treaties, upon interpretation, might be found to be inapplicable under the new circumstances, while many others might be deliberately drafted in anticipation of a change of sovereignty, and might incorporate a clause providing for the solution of the problem. A study of concrete issues is thus, generally, more instructive in determining the effect of change of sovereignty upon treaties than is the enunciation of general principles of succession.

One of the more heartening developments in the field of development economics has been the modest success of the United States investment guarantee program. It did not therefore come entirely as a surprise when Mr. Eugene R. Black, then President of the World Bank, told his Board of Governors at their Vienna meeting in September, 1961, that, following a suggestion by the Development Assistance Committee of the O.E.C.D., the Bank was “studying the possibility of devising a multilateral scheme for the insurance of private foreign investments against various non-commercial risks.”

On June 22, 1953, important amendments to the Netherlands Constitution concerning the administration of foreign affairs came into force. Among the most radical probably was the recognition by our Constitution of the primacy of international agreements and of decisions of international organizations over rules of municipal law. This spectacular innovation inspired the editors of the Chicago Daily Tribune, when announcing this event in their issue of December 12, 1952, to choose as a headline: “Less than a Nation.”

The material for this section has been prepared by a committee consisting of Richard B. Bilder, Harold S. Burman, Stanley L. Cohen, Thomas T. F. Huang, Sylvia E. Nilsen, and Herbert K. Reis under the chairmanship of Ernest L. Kerley, all of the Office of the Legal Adviser, Department of State. Mr. Alfred P. Rubin of the Office of General Counsel, Department of Defense, has provided the committee with material originating in the Department of Defense.