In 1900, by the opening of the Chicago drainage canal, there was provided a watercourse for the disposal of sewage and for navigation from Lake Michigan by way of the Chicago River to the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Entailing as it did the reversal of the flow of the Chicago River, this, from the engineering standpoint, has been hailed as a great achievement. The large abstraction of water from Lake Michigan through the canal, however, had its effect in a lowering of levels in the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River with consequent injury to navigation. This brought about constant opposition to the canal from the Federal Government and from Canada. Thus the Sanitary District of Chicago has been involved in a host of legal difficulties and put to much expense in adjusting its plant to the demands of the United States Government. The diversion in the meantime has been a constant source of ill-feeling towards the United States on the part of Canada and at present, although under federal control, offers an obstacle to the further development of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence waterways.

With nationality problems continuing to occupy a prominent place in both international and municipal practice, expressions of opinion of our highest tribunal upon the subject are received with peculiar interest. This is particularly true where the rule announced is one which governs the validity of naturalization judgments. In a recent sweeping naturalization decision which upholds the government’s views at every point, the United States Supreme Court has again stressed the rule that when doubt exists concerning a grant of citizenship, the statutes must be strictly construed in favor of the United States and against the alien. On October 22, 1928, the court handed down its opinion in the case of Anna Marie Maney, Petitioner, v. The United States of America, in which it affirmed, on writ of certiorari, the judgment of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The latter court had directed the cancellation of the applicant’s certificate of naturalization as having been “illegally procured” because of her failure to file, at the prescribed time and in the required manner, the certificate of her arrival in the United States.

Until the World War the rights of intellectual property were generallydivided into two classes: industrial and artistic or literary property, corresponding to two separate kinds of creations: those aiming at industrial results and those possessing an aesthetic or literary character. This classification, accepted as a matter of course, produced, as will be seen, some difficulties and led to unsatisfactory results in certain cases. Soon after the end of the war a new class of intellectual property began to be discussed: the scientific property. Its claim to existence and protection was not primarily due to theoretical speculation and developments of doctrine, but to practical causes.

For the political scientist, the constitutional position of the Council of the League of Nations offers a thorny problem. In general, the Assembly and Council are each empowered to deal “ with any matter within the sphere of action of the League or affecting the peace of the world.” But, in addition, the Council is assigned special duties by Articles 6, 7, 8, 10, 14,15,16 and 24 of the Covenant and by the Treaties of Versailles, St. Germain, Trianon and Neuilly. The First Assembly tried to delimit the powers of Assembly and Council, but it must be admitted that the report presented to the Committee on General Organization by M. Viviani and Mr. Rowell (of Canada) was almost a confession of failure. They rejected comparisons with first and second chambers or legislative and executive bodies and added “ the truth is that the League offers no analogy in constitutional law.” The most recent League publication on the organization of the League contents itself with describing the Council as “ a semi-permanent organ of the Assembly.” Undeterred by its anomalous position, however, the Council has steadily grown in prestige and moral authority until election to it is keenly coveted. It is the purpose of this article to trace the steps which led to the election of Canada to the Council at the Eighth Assembly. No finer compliment to the growing importance of Canada in international affairs has yet been paid, a compliment which came appropriately enough in the year of the nation's Jubilee of Confederation.

The law of unneutral service deals with those acts of neutral vessels which constitute assistance to a belligerent, significant enough in consequences to give the offender a hostile character. It must be emphasized that, contrary to the inferences of some writers, unneutral service has nothing to do with acts committed by a hostile state. There are rules dealing with such acts, but they are not comprehended within the meaning of the term which is the subject of this discussion.

The unsolved problems arising from the foreign settlements and concessions in China are of such a nature as to make a study of the former foreign settlements in neighboring Korea a timely contribution to the literature on the general subject. The very contrasts which the settlements in Korea present to those in China serve to clarify the problems in the latter country.

The first non–stop flight to Europe was, perhaps, a victory for the cause of peace and international goodwill, but to those who have followed the developments in aerial warfare and the attempts which have been made in recent years to formulate rules for the conduct of belligerent operations in the air, this and successive flights come as a reminder of the still nebulous state of international air law.

The following incident will explain the reason for the suggestions in this paper that treaties signed on behalf of the United States should be published, in some cases, before their ratification.

The recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that Madam Rosika Schwimmer, avowed “ uncompromising pacifist,” is not eligible to become a citizen of the United States has focused attention upon our naturalization laws and their judicial construction. Especial interest has been aroused in those provisions which prescribe the qualifications concerning the applicant's attachment to the principles of the Constitution of the United States.