The sudden and tragic death of Dag Hammarskjold on September 17, 1961, evoked throughout almost the entire world a sense of grief and loss that was without parallel in recent times.

[This article was completed in the summer of 1961 before Dag Hammarskjold’s tragic death. It was intended primarily to provide an account of Mr. Hammarskjold’s own concept of the legal-constitutional framework within which he performed his high office. The article is now offered—without modification—as a modest tribute to a man who has left an historic imprint on the development of international law and organization.]

The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, unquestionably has made important contributions to the development of international law, though perhaps not on a scale that was optimistically assumed or, at any rate, hoped for at the time of its founding.

“ . . . It would be strange if now, in face of the formidable development of international debts, there were nothing for the lawyer to say.” Sir John Fischer Williams, Chapters on Current International Law and the League of Nations, p. 257 (1929).

The United Nations Conference on Diplomatic Intercourse and Immunities met at the Neue Hofburg in Vienna from March 2 to April 14, 1961, pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 1450 (XIV) which stated the Assembly’s decision to convene an international conference of plenipotentiaries to consider the question of diplomatic intercourse and immunities.

The purpose of this comment is not to pass legal or political judgment on the actions of the governments involved in the U-2 and the RB-47 incidents of 1960, but to note and analyze, now that the passions aroused by the incidents have subsided, some of the legal implications of the positions taken by these and other governments in connection with these incidents, particularly with respect to sovereignty and jurisdiction in space.

The purpose of this note is to consider an appropriate limitation on the use of the “Act of State Doctrine,” particularly in the light of Judge Dimock’s decision in Banco National de Cuba v. Sabbatino, 193 F. Supp. 375 (D.C., S.D.N.Y., 1961).

For episodes of melodramatic derring-do, calculated opportunism, and high human courage, there is little in contemporary literature to compare with the practice of political asylum.

The President of the United States has directed the prompter clearance and publication of Foreign Relations and a continuing review of Government files with a view to automatic declassification of papers, with specific exceptions, 12 years after issuance.

The Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law will hold its sixth Summer Program in Foreign Law on the Columbia University campus during the period from June 4 through June 29, 1962.

The Institute of Air and Space Law of McGill University has announced that its twelfth session will commence in September, 1962. The length of the course is two years.

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University, which is a graduate school of international affairs administered with the cooperation of Harvard University, has announced its program of study for 1962–1963.

The 56th Annual Meeting of the Society will be held at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Washington, D. C, from April 26 to 28, 1962. The tentative program has been announced.

As announced in the Society’s letter No. 8 to members, the Society has received from the Ford Foundation a grant of $500,000 to support the Society’s expanding program of studies and research on foreign investment and economic development, space activities, federalism, and disarmament.

Under the study programs financed by the Ford Foundation grant, noted above, the American Society of International Law is offering a small number of research fellowships for studies of the legal aspects of space activities.