The use of opium originally prevailed only among vagrants and disreputable persons, who occasionally associated together for the purpose of partaking of this substance, but since it has extended itself among the members and descendants of reputable families, students, and officers of government, many of whom are so infatuated in their attachment to the drug as to make habitual use of it.

The World Court’s recent decision in the North Sea Continental Shelf Cases is a major contribution to that branch of the theory of customary international law dealing with norm-creation by means of a treaty. The Court articulated a new methodology for determining which provisions in treaties can form the basis of universally binding customary law. As the spreading network of international conventions becomes more fine-meshed, the substantive rules of international customary law may be expected to conform more and more closely to the provisions in these conventions. The World Court has implicitly recognized this process in many prior opinions, but it was not until the Continental Shelf decision that the link between treaty and custom was focused upon with precision. I shall argue in this essay that the Court used a method which might be called the rule of manifest intent, that this method differs from a more traditional approach found in the writings of publicists, and that this new method accords well with the growing need to objectify and place upon a scientific basis the methodology by which one may determine what in fact are the rules of customary law.

Thought about the problems of economic growth has evolved in the space of two hundred years from the static models of Adam Smith and David Ricardo to the eclecticism of modern development economists. The current eclectic economic philosophy is increasingly reflected in operating policies of institutions concerned with international development. One result is the framing of a new set of issues which are best expressed in terms of the adaptability of development assistance mechanisms to meet varied and frequently changing needs. Thus the present discussion, after a look at experience since World War II, will examine issues which may be viewed as guideposts to development assistance flexibility: increased multilateralism in the transfer of resources; harmonization of the terms of resource transfer with debt service capabilities; the channeling of growth toward optimal goals, including the stimulation of capacity to earn foreign exchange; and the encouragement of balanced investment involving the private as well as the public sector.

At the direction of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, a questionnaire survey of the membership was made in the Spring of 1969. This report summarizes the information and data received in 2,492 questionnaires returned. Over 55% of the Society’s members responded to the survey.