Book Department

• DOI: 10.1177/000271626233900114
• Published date: 01 January 1962
• Date: 01 January 1962
• Subject Matter: Articles

Book Department
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
no universal body of law, even of inter-
national law, but only a world &dquo;divided
MYRES McDoUGAL and ASSOCIATES, Stud-
into diverse systems of public order&dquo; which
ies in World Public Order. Pp. xx, 1058.
must be molded into &dquo;a world order nearer
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
to the aspirations of human dignity.’-’ The
Press, 1960. $15.00.
second describes &dquo;the particular intellectual
Since World War II, no scholarly work
skills&dquo; recommended for the jurisprudence
has stimulated thinking and wondering
for which they plead, arguing that &dquo;legal
about international law more than have
education ... must be conscious, eflicient
Myres McDougal’s articles. Many of the
and systematic training for policy-making.&dquo;
most important have now been compiled in
In the second division, &dquo;Strategies for
this single weighty volume, presenting
Minimum Order,&dquo; McDougal’s own lec-
within two covers a welcome exposition of
ture, &dquo;The Impact of International Law
his &dquo;policy-oriented&dquo; approach to both
on National Law: A Policy-Oriented Per-
legal education and the process of decision-
spective,&dquo; is followed by essays on the law
making for the &dquo;world community.&dquo; The
of war, human rights, treaties, and the
approach will grow in importance as more
United Nations Charter, all with able asso-
McDougal disciples, skilled in the special
ciates. To those readers who thought that
language of policy-orientation, find their
the monumental essay on international
way to positions of influence in scholar-
agreements argued that treaties and presi-
ship and government. Several of them are
dential agreements were wholly inter-
among the &dquo;associates&dquo; with whom most
changeable, Professor McDougal, in the
of the collected articles were written.
new Introduction, answers firmly that he
In arranging these essays for republica-
said no such thing.
tion, Professor McDougal has sought the
The third division of the volume deals
&dquo;unity ... of a contextual, policy-ori-
with &dquo;sharable resources&dquo;: the oceans,
ented jurisprudence, postulating as its over-
their use for hydrogen bomb tests and for
riding goal the dignity of man in an in-
ships generally, and outer space, all writ-
creasingly universal public order.&dquo;
The
ten with other associates. The final divi-
volume starts with two articles written in
sion includes a plea for the comparative
association with Harold Lasswell. The first
study of law for the sake of &dquo;achieving
presents the &dquo;general theory&dquo; that there is
the special insights necessary to effective
177

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178
cooperation and survival in the contempo-
essays-mostly the early ones, but also the
rary world.&dquo; It closes with Professor Mc-
recent collaboration on outer space with
Dougal’s presidential address to the Ameri-
Leon Lipson-do not reflect the peculiar
can Society of International Law of 1959,
style. It seemingly was developed within
a fitting summary of his aspirations for
the past decade; perhaps some of the as-
the achievement of an &dquo;international law
sociates edited it out of their collaboration.
of human dignity.&dquo;
The result is that certain of the articles
Little need be said of the substance of
will be called more readable than others,
these essays; all have been widely discussed
although all are meaty, learned, and chal-
and frequently cited. There will still be
lenging.
disagreement with some. The essay on the
MICHAEL H. CARDOZO
hydrogen bomb, for example, strongly de-
Professor of Law
fends the testing, largely on the premise
Cornell University
of reasonableness in the interest of &dquo;the
defense and security of the free world,&dquo;
HERBERT FEIS. Between War and Peace:
and the absence of &dquo;authoritative&dquo; reports
The Potsdam Conference. Pp. viii, 367.
of resulting injury. Aside from the heated
Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University
issues of morality and disarmament, one
Press, 1960. $6.50.
who had read the earlier article on human
This is the fourth volume of Dr. Feis’s
rights might be surprised not to find in
distinguished studies of World War II. It
this essay more emphasis on a means of
follows his monumental account of the war
outlawing bomb tests unless there were
time period in Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin
authoritative proof of harmlessness.
and is based partly upon the records of the
No controversy stirred by McDougal has
State Department, Harriman, and Grew.
been more charged than the issue evolved
Like his earlier books, this one is thor-
by the language of his presentation. His
ough, thoughtful, and mature.
recent writing style has resemblance to that
Two strong threads run through the pre-
of Henry James, whose complicated sen-
Conference half of the book. One is the
tences often provoked charges of obscur-
long-sustained effort of the Germans to
ity. Eminent scholars have said of Mc-
cause strife between the Allies by sur-
Dougal that he is &dquo;difficult to translate&dquo;;
rendering in the West while continuing to
that &dquo;the thesis is somewhat lost in socio-
fight against the Russians. Drastic efforts
logical jargon&dquo;; and that &dquo;I have never
on Eisenhower’s part were required to end
learned the language, the polysyllabic inter-
the war in full loyalty to the Russians,
pretation of things as they are.&dquo;
They
who had borne the brunt of the fighting
might have cited special usages of common
on land.
terms, like &dquo;perspectives,&dquo; &dquo;public order,&dquo;
The other thread is the long campaign
and &dquo;minimum order,&dquo; sometimes even to
of Churchill to delay Western evacuation
an extent that seems to call for a footnote
of parts of the Soviet zone of occupation
glossary. Then we meet &dquo;semiotic&dquo; and
until some, or all, of the results of Rus-
&dquo;semological&dquo; in an essay on legal educa-
sia’s westward drive into Europe were
tion. Besides the semantic problem, there
overcome.
One consequence was that the
is frequently a structure of long and laby-
Russians held us out of Berlin until as-
rinthine sentences.
A unique and novel
sured that their zone would be evacuated,
jargon may admittedly contribute to pre-
and the arrangements for our access to the
cision in the description of a new approach,
city were more hurried than they might
but it may result in the loss of a large part
have been. Stricken when he was finally
of the potential audience. McDougal’s later
overruled, Churchill then fought against
style has certainly frightened away many
the moving of Poland’s borders so far
lawyers and students accustomed to a more
West, aided by Truman. The successful
traditional idiom. Some of his associates,
atomic test on July 16 stiffened both and
of course, may be partially responsible for
made Churchill exultant that something
the language. In this collection, several
had come to hand which would completely

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179
alter &dquo;the
new unfavorable diplomatic
of topical significance. Among them are
equilibrium.&dquo;
problems connected with equality of op-
But they could not change significantly
portunity and, transcending them all in im-
the results of the long appeasement drive
portance, the relative risks of military de-
of London and Paris before the war, which
fence against Communist aggression and
had turned Hitler toward the East, or of
capitulation or surrender.
the long failure of the West to open the
With respect to the first, Jaspers makes
second front until mid-1944, a series of
some interesting but inconclusive sugges-
decisions forced by Churchill. By this
tions. He recognizes that equality of op-
time the Russians had come into control
portunity must in some way be geared to
of Central Europe by the hardest way.
natural inequalities. In order to escape
Accordingly, Potsdam left a bad taste in
undesirable levelling he proposes that &dquo;in-
British and American mouths. Byrnes tried
eradicable inequalities must as a matter of
to assure the Russians that the United
principle be respected and permitted to
States would not repeat the mistake of
grow non-violently into levels of rank.&dquo;
building up Germany again, or rearming
He does not indicate, however, how the
her. &dquo;If we were fools enough to do so,&dquo;
perils of a &dquo;meritocracy,&dquo; in which differ-
he said, &dquo;we should deserve the fate that .
ence in status may involve inequitable dis-
would inevitably overtake us,&dquo; but Stalin
proportions of power, are to be avoided.
was not reassured.
Yet even he could
It is in Jaspers’ attitude towards the
hardly have foreseen that in 1961 we would
threat of communism and in his refusal to
be firmly risking the final nuclear world
permit his thinking to be paralyzed by
war to prevent an unfavorable change in
hysterical fear of war that the main sig-
the status of divided Berlin.
nificance of this work lies.
His position
The book ends somberly, as every book
here has been misreported. He recognizes
on world politics should. Feis appeals to
that there is a danger of a nuclear holo-
us to choose life by acting &dquo;more maturely
caust if war breaks out. But he believes
and more trustfully&dquo; than at the end of
that those who seek to avoid it by uni-
the war, for &dquo;the capability of men to re-
lateral surrender of nuclear weapons pre-
spond to reason-and to master their pas-
pare the way for an infamy that transcends
sionate purposes and fancies-is undergoing
the...