A Tribute to The International Lawyer

• Author: Roger S. Clark
• Position: Board of Governors Professor, Rutgers Law School; Member, External Advisory Board, The International Lawyer.
• Pages: 13-15

A Tribute to The International Lawyer

R

OGER

S. C

LARK

*

It is a delight to contribute a few words to this celebratory issue of The

International Lawyer, marking the fiftieth year of its life. For about two

decades of that time, I have been proud to be a member of its External

Advisory Board. I am particularly appreciative of the sterling labor that the

faculty and students of SMU Dedman School of Law have devoted to its

production during that time, in collaboration with the ABA Section of

International Law. As the most widely-circulated journal in the world on

international law, it is important that the journal maintain the highest

standards of professionalism. This it has done.

I cannot claim to have read every issue from cover to cover. But I can

claim to have dipped into its pages since the very first volume appeared in

1966-67. In the fall of 1967 I came from my native New Zealand to New

York to engage in graduate study at Columbia Law School. I remember

browsing Volume 1 of The International Lawyer in the Columbia Law

Library. That first volume set the basic format for what has always been an

eclectic collection of material on what might broadly be categorized as

public and private international law and on comparative law. At the same

time, that first issue captured many of the burning issues of the day, and

some historical ones as well (such as an account of Louis XVI’s lawyers).

There were, for example, articles on the (then new) Convention on the

Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other

States, the Foreign Claims Commission and the Cuban Claims Program, the

early drafting of what became the Principles of International Law

Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation Among States, a series of

items on the recognition of Mexican divorces in selected countries

(including one by an Assistant Professor at Rutgers Law School named Ruth

B. Ginsburg on Sweden and other Nordic Countries, and another by my

Columbia Professor John Hazard on their recognition in the Soviet Union),

as well as a thoughtful article on Post-Stalin Soviet Jurisprudence by Gray L.

Dorsey and some thoughts on the re-emerging discussions on the law of the

sea. There was a note on the recently-concluded Covenants on Human

Rights. There was a book review by the Editor-in-Chief, Clifford J.

Hynning, of the three-volume collective work edited by Richard Falk and

Saul Mendlovitz entitled The Strategy of World Order, a review that could

* Board of Governors Professor, Rutgers Law School; Member, External Advisory Board,

The International Lawyer.

THE INTERNATIONAL LAWYER

A TRIANNUAL PUBLICATION OF THE ABA/SECTION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

PUBLISHED IN COOPERATION WITH

SMU DEDMAN SCHOOL OF LAW