Right & Rights

During the first U.S. observance of Law Day last week, American Bar Association President Charles Rhyne appeared at Duke University, made a strong argument for a world rule of law. "War with Russia," said the A.B.A.'s Rhyne (TIME, May 5), "is as certain as tomorrow's sunrise unless a formula or mechanism can be developed to maintain peace other than through arms." That being the stark fact, Rhyne suggested that it was high time for the U.S. State Department under International Lawyer John Foster Dulles to set up a new section staffed with experts to concentrate on law as a positive weapon in achieving and maintaining peace.

Sample quotes from other Law Day speeches:

P: U.S. Attorney General William P. Rogers, referring to current congressional attempts to limit jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court (see The Congress): "There have been periods in our history when the 'kill the umpire' attitude made considerable headway, and many pop bottles have been thrown at our courts in the past. Fortunately, except in minor ways, the legislature has never taken these attacks seriously enough to alter the judicial system or retaliate against the judiciary."

P: New York's Democratic Governor Averell Harriman, no lawyer, turning full face against a fellow Democrat. Arkansas' Governor Orval Faubus: "Ours is a nation founded upon the rule of law. It is shocking to see a governor of one of the states calling out the National Guard, not to uphold the Constitution and orders of the Supreme Court but to defy them. Such action cannot be tolerated. It offends the concept of law on which our society is based."

P: Kansas' District Judge Beryl R. Johnson, speaking in Topeka: "As we climb the summit to confer, we must be mindful that the leaders who have described their dictatorship as a 'domination of the proletariat over the bourgeois,' have little regard for the sanctity of contract and do not believe that people have certain unalienable rights."

P: U.S. District Judge Irving R. Kaufman, who presided over the atom-spy trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, speaking at Fordham University Law School: "The space age promises to require far greater concessions of national sovereignty to international control and regulation. Earth satellites are circling the globe now in about the same time that it takes to get from Brooklyn to The Bronx by subway.* Since Sputnik, the question 'How high is up?' has taken on vast new significance. While historically sovereign jurisdiction extends to the air above the land, it would be totally unfeasible for such jurisdiction to extend to outer space. International control will be imperative."

* Actual subway time from Brooklyn to The Bronx: one hour and 20 minutes. Actual running time of Russia's Sputnik I: one hour and 36.2 minutes.

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