The Sixth Year of the Permanent Court of International Justice

Abstract

The sixth year of the Permanent Court of International Justice has been busy and fruitful. The judges have been kept continuously at The Hague from the beginning of the twelfth(ordinary) session on June 15, 1927, to the end of the session on December 16, 1927. During the year the court has handed down four important orders, four judgments, and oneadvisory opinion. The following countries have been involved in cases or questions before the court during this period: Belgium, British Empire, China, Danzig, France, Germany Greece, Italy, Poland, Roumania, Turkey. The extent to which the court has been resortedto in six years is the best proof that it is filling a need in the international life ofour time. Whereas, in the course of its first six years, the Supreme Court of the Unite States handled but twelve cases, the Permanent Court of International Justice has now given eleven judgments and fourteen advisory opinions. Such a record seems to presage a useful rôle for the court in the future. It has now become so embedded in the world's treaty law that it would seem very difficult for the world ever again to be without it. In six years it has made significant contributions to our growing international jurisprudence, some of the most important of which have been made during the last twelve months.