ACT OF SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. 97 



the United States since the organization of the Supreme Court in 1789, 

 which involve in a larger or lesser degree principles of international law. 

 It is therefore of very great importance for the future of international 

 relations to understand clearly that international law is thus susceptible 

 of judicial interpretation (because it has been interpreted and applied 

 judicially not only in one country but in the countries generally) and that 

 there already exists a large body of judicial precedent, not merely in prize 

 cases but in all justiciable cases involving questions of international law, 

 for the guidance of that international court which will one day admin- 

 ister justice between the nations, as national courts administer justice 

 between man and man in every country making a pretense to 

 civilization. 



These judgments, although not gathered together in any one place, 

 are nevertheless to be found in the reports of judicial proceedings, and 

 it would be a very great service if these decisions were collected in appro- 

 priate volumes and placed at the disposal of professed students of 

 international law. But it is of equal if not of greater importance that 

 the sentences of arbitral tribunals and the awards of international com- 

 missions be collected and published, in addition to the judgments of 

 national courts involving questions of international law, in order that 

 the students of any one country may have before them the adjudged 

 cases dealing with international law, whether by national courts, arbitral 

 tribunals, or mixed commissions. 



The Congress therefore recommended that a law reporter of inter- 

 national cases be issued. To explain exactly the meaning of this recom- 

 mendation, it should be borne in mind that the judgments of the Supreme 

 Court of the United States are issued in official reports and that the deci- 

 sions of the Federal and the State courts are likewise published serially in 

 permanent form. It is proposed that an international reporter should 

 do for the decisions of international and national courts turning upon 

 questions of international law what the various reports issued in the 

 United States have done for the decisions of Federal and State courts. 

 It is difficult to overestimate the service which collections of the older 

 decisions and of the future holdings of national and international 

 courts would render to the cause of international justice and the very 

 great impetus which such collections would give to the establishment of 

 an international court of justice, by showing that international law can 

 be interpreted and applied judicially in the future because it has been so 

 interpreted and applied in times past as well as in the immediate present. 

 2775016 7 



