Toward World Law

One of the great purposes of this Administration, wrote Dwight Eisenhower on the eve of his world tour, "has been to advance the rule of law in the world through actions directly by the U.S. Government and in concert with the governments of other countries. It is open to us to further this great purpose both through optimum use of existing international institutions and through the adoption of changes and improvements in those institutions."

So saying, in a letter to Minnesota's Senator Hubert Humphrey, the President aligned himself with Humphrey's persistent effort to remove a major roadblock in the U.S. relationship with the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The roadblock: the so-called Connally Amendment of 1946, under which the U.S. reserves the right to bypass the World Court on any dispute that it considers "essentially domestic."

"I intend, on an appropriate occasion," the President promised Democrat Humphrey, "to restate to the Congress my support for the elimination of this reservation. Elimination of this automatic reservation from our own declaration accepting compulsory jurisdiction would place the U.S. in a better position to urge other countries to agree to wider jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice."

With such a quiet "great purpose," which is not the stuff of headlines, the U.S. could contribute to the world a clear and enduring leadership which is not the stuff of Communism.

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