Proposed Changes in the Statute of the World Court

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THE Committee of Jurists which met in Geneva in March of this year had for its primary duty the revision of the Statute of the World Court. With the help of one of its members, Mr. Root, the Committee also drafted a plan for facilitating the adherence of the United States to the Court,^[i] but that was not the original object of the Council and Assembly of the League when they brought the Committee into being in 1928. The time seemed ripe for a study to determine whether revision were needed, because the entire bench of the court must be re-elected in 1930 and the experience of eight years could be drawn upon.

As Mr. Root has stated, the Committee which created the Court Statute in 1920 were engaged in an experimental undertaking, for no such court had ever before existed. That Committee had not anticipated how much business the new Court would have. The new Committee felt that the original organization of the Court was not such as to facilitate the expeditious handling of so many cases, and it was recognized that the international situation frequently requires immediate action by the Court. Thus, as Mr. Root said, "The lessons which the Committee of 1929 has had to apply have been the lessons, not of failure, but of success."