submitted by the Committee to the American Society of International Law on April 29, 1916. A copy of this report is appended hereto, p. 161. The recommendations contained therein were approved by the Society, and the Standing Committee proceeded to take the necessary steps to put them in effect. At the same meeting of the Society a suggestion was made that there should be established a summer school or conference of international law, where those who are particularly interested in the subject could gather for a few weeks and discuss questions of international law and attend lectures by distinguished men from the United States, Europe and South America. This proposal was referred to the Standing Committee for consideration. At a meeting of the Standing Committee held on December 2, 1916, it decided to recommend the holding of a summer conference on international law and the establishment of fellowships for the study of international law and related subjects. The following regulations governing the fellowships were agreed upon: Regulations Governing Fellowships for the Study of International Law and Related Subjects 1. These fellowships shall be awarded only to graduate-students holding the equivalent of a bachelor's degree from an approved institution. The stipend attached to such fellowships shall be $750. Special fellowships may be awarded to teachers in international law or related subjects. At least one year of previous teaching in international law or related subjects, or its equivalent in practical experience, is required. The stipend attached to such fellowship shall be $1,000. 2. The qualifications of candidates shall be approved by the Standing Committee on the Study and Teaching of International Law and Related Subjects of the American Society of International Law. In general a knowledge of the elements of International Law and a good knowledge of history is necessary, and it is desirable that at least two modern languages be furnished. Other special previous preparation will be considered. The student shall report to the Committee twice during each year. 3. A fellowship shall for the first year be granted to a student to pursue courses only at an institution other than that at which he had been studying for the year preceding, unless in exceptional cases as directed by the Committee. 4. A fellowship may be continued for a second year in the same institution, but no person shall hold a fellowship for more than three years. It was further recommended that for the year 1917-18 not to exceed five fellowships in each class should be awarded. The Standing Committee considered also the question of aiding the teaching of international law in colleges and universities which do not teach this subject, and it approved the recommendation of the Director made last year1 that visiting 1 Year Book for 1916, p. 119. professors of international law be sent to those institutions to deliver courses of lectures on the fundamentals of the subject. In approving this recommendation, the Standing Committee expressed the opinion that it is desirable that the institutions which receive visiting professors of international law should pay at least a portion of the expenses connected with such visits. The Committee also considered at the same meeting the subject of the breadth, specialization, methods, etc., of classroom instruction. The following sub-committees were appointed by the Standing Committee and entrusted with the working out of the arrangements and details of the particular subject assigned to each: Sub-Committee on Classroom Instruction: Messrs. Hyde and Snow, and the Chairman, ex officio. Sub-Committee on Summer Conference on International Law: Messrs. Sub-Committee on Visiting Lecturers on International Law: Messrs. Sub-Committee on Fellowships of International Law: Messrs. Judson and Scott, and the Chairman, ex officio. The Executive Committee of the Endowment has since allotted funds to provide for the holding of the Conference on International Law during the coming summer, and for the awarding of fellowships on international law during the year 1917-18. The same amount appropriated last year is included in the estimates for the coming year to provide for the continuation of this work. American Institute of International Law The origin, the nature and the services which the American Institute of International Law might reasonably be expected to render have been stated at length in the annual reports of the Division beginning with 1912.1 This was at a time before it had received or had asked a subvention from the Endowment, because the Director of the Division believes that a wise policy is to aid existing institutions in case of need, and not to create them with the funds of the Endowment unless their creation is essential to the progress of international justice and unaided private interest has been unable to call appropriate agencies into being. In 1916 an item was included in the estimates and was allowed by the Trustees and allotted by the Executive Committee, and this year a like item appears. In view of these facts, it seems advisable to state somewhat in detail the action of the Institute since it has received financial support at the hands of the Endowment. 1 Year Books: 1912, p. 126; 1913–1914, p. 109; 1915, p. 117; 1916, p. 121. It may be said that the American Institute of International Law, proposed in 1910, founded in 1912, is an unofficial scientific association, whose sole purpose is to discover the principles of justice applicable to justice between nations, and to diffuse knowledge of these principles in the American Republics; that it is composed of five members from each American Republic who are recommended by the national society of international law of each country; that it meets not oftener than once a year in the capital of an American country to which it has been invited by the government thereof and whose guest it is; that it cooperates with each of the national societies of international law affiliated with it, transmitting projects and requesting their opinions, so that in adopting projects the desires of the societies may be considered, and the principles of justice applicable formulated in rules of law to the end that the principles of justice may enter into and eventually control the conduct of nations. The first session of the Institute was held in Washington December 29, 1915, to January 8, 1916, in connection with and under the auspices of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress. It was attended by a representative of the publicists of every American Republic. The national societies presented projects, as also did many members of the Institute, and the Institute adopted as the basis of its future action a Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Nations and an official commentary explaining the sense in which this Declaration was understood and adopted. The text of this Declaration and an abridged commentary were printed in the Year Book for 1916. The documents in extenso have been translated into various languages, published and widely circulated not only in each of the American Republics, but in other countries as well, and the Declaration has been favorably, indeed, enthusiastically received, as forming a firm and a sure foundation upon which the society of nations can one day rear its temple of justice. Without entering into details, it should be noted in this connection that the Declaration, consisting of but six articles, is not based upon the speculations of philosophers or of publicists as such, but that each one of its articles is based upon and is supported by an adjudged decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, putting beyond question the juridical and the judicial nature of what the Institute considers to be the fundamentals of international right and of international duty. During the session at Washington the Institute was officially invited by the Government of the Republic of Cuba to hold its next session at Habana as the guest of the Republic. The Cuban Society of International Law placed itself at the disposal of the Institute and asked that the meeting in Habana be held under its auspices, which invitation was accepted, and the Institute met at Habana on January 22, 1917, and remained in session until January 27. His Excellency the President of the Republic presided in person over the opening 1Pages 128-137. session, the Secretary of State welcomed it on behalf of the government, the Cuban Congress voted the sum of $10,000 for its entertainment, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies adopted resolutions of welcome and of appreciation, thus confessing their faith in the services which the Institute could render, and the City Council offered the freedom of the city to the members. During the course of the session at Habana the Uruguayan Minister, by direction of his government, invited the Institute to hold its next session in the city of Montevideo as the guest of the Government of Uruguay, an invitation which the Institute cordially accepted and which may be considered as showing the interest which the American Republics are taking in the Institute, their approval of its aims and purposes, and their belief in the value of its labors. As will be seen from the Final Act which is attached hereto,' the Institute adopted a series of resolutions dealing with international organization, to be known as the Recommendations of Habana, and confessed its faith in the Central American Court of Justice, which was the first, as it is still the only, permanent international court. It referred to the national societies for an expression of opinion the following six projects, which will be taken up and discussed at the session of Montevideo and considered in the light of principles of justice and of the opinions of the national societies: (a) Project relating to the fundamental bases of international law. (b) Project relating to the fundamental rights of the American continent or the American world. (c) Project for the regulation of neutrality in naval war. (d) Bases relating to the organization of a court of arbitral justice. (e) Union or league of nations for the maintenance of peace. (f) Rights and duties of nations which are derived from the fundamental rights. The various projects laid before the Institute at the Washington session, described in the report of the Secretary General, entitled The International Law of the Future, together with the other projects presented at the Habana session, will be sent to the national societies for the expression of opinion, in order that they may be considered at the third session at Montevideo, to be held in the summer of 1918. But to return to the Habana session. It will suffice to say that all of the twenty-one American republics, with the exception of Haiti, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua, were represented at the session, notwithstanding the difficulty, danger and delay of communication at this time, due to the war, which affects the Americas as well as Europe. It is not necessary to enter into the details of the session, but it is, in the opinion of the Director, desirable to consider the Recommendations of Habana on international organization, as they furnish the 1Appendix C, p. 166. goal toward which the nations should in the opinion of the Institute tend, just as the Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Nations furnish the point of departure. Like the Declaration, the Recommendations are preceded by a preamble, which, in this instance, is based upon the preamble of the Peaceful Settlement Convention of the First and Second Hague Peace Conferences, differing from the preamble of the Declaration, which is based upon the political philosophy of the Declaration of Independence of the United States. An analysis of the preamble of the Peaceful Settlement Convention convinced the members of the Institute that the Conferences recognized certain fundamentals of political organization, such as the existence of a society of states and that the welfare of the nations and of their peoples depend upon principles of law and equity, which can be best formulated and stated in international conferences, and applied by an international court of justice to the disputes of a justiciable nature arising between the nations. The Institute felt further, as is pointed out in the commentary accompanying the Recommendations, that some committee or body should be called into being and act in behalf of the Conferences, which are in the nature of a lawrecommending body, in order to call the attention of the nations to the conventions and declarations of the Conferences, and to secure their observance. As the preamble is very brief, it is here quoted in full: Whereas the independent existence of civilized nations and their solidarity of interests under the conditions of modern life has resulted in a society of nations; and Whereas the safety of nations and the welfare of their peoples depend upon the application to them of principles of law and equity in their mutual relations as members of civilized society; and Whereas the law of nations can best be formulated and stated by the nations assembled for this purpose in international conferences; and Whereas it is in the interest of the society of nations that international agreements be made effective by ratification and observance on all occasions, and that some agency of the society of nations be constituted to act for it during the intervals between such conferences; and Whereas the principles of law and equity can best be ascertained and applied to the disputes between and among the nations by a court of justice accessible to all in the midst of the independent powers forming the society of civilized nations; Therefore the American Institute of International Law, at its second session, held in the City of Habana, in the Republic of Cuba, on the 23d day of January, 1917, adopts the following recommendations, to be known as its Recommendations of Habana. From an inspection of the Final Act, which accompanies this brief comment (p. 166), it will be seen that the Institute urged in the first three articles of its Recommendation periodic, stated meetings of the Hague Conferences, to which all nations should be invited and in which no one nation should take as of right a |