The Office, in addition to its other duties, issues a monthly bulletin which contains: (1) The laws and general or local regulations promulgated in (4) Statistics concerning public health; (5) Notices of publications. INTERNATIONAL PENAL AND PENITENTIARY COMMISSION 1 (Organized 1872; reorganized 1880) Offices: Bern, Switzerland. 1 American Commissioner: Sanford Bates, of Massachusetts, Director of the Bureau of Prisons, Department of Justice. The International Penal and Penitentiary Commission is the permanent executive body of the International Prison Congresses. It was organized at the first Congress held in London in 1872 under the chairmanship of the American Commissioner, Dr. E. C. Wines, who became its first president. The Commission serves as a coordinating agency for the collection and distribution of information concerning prison administration. It is composed of specialists in penology from each adhering country and is governed by regulations drawn up at the Stockholm Congress of 1877, adopted at the Paris Congress of 1880, confirmed at the Congress held at Bern in 1886, and subsequently revised at the Bern Congresses of 1926 and 1929. Twenty-eight countries, including the United States, are members of the Commission. The United States is authorized, by the act making appropriations for the Diplomatic and Consular Service for the fiscal year 1914,2 to contribute an annual sum toward the administrative expenses of the Commission and to pay the expenses of a commissioner to represent it on the Commission. Appropriations for this Government's share of the expenses of the Commission and for the expenses of the American Commissioner were made each year thereafter, up to and including the fiscal year 1932. For the fiscal year 1933, however, no appropriation was made 1Formerly called the International Prison Commission. 237 Stat. 688. by Congress. For the fiscal years 1934 and 1935, Congress appropriated funds to enable this Government to pay its share of the Commission's expenses but did not make any provision for the expenses of the American Commissioner. INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL COMMITTEE OF AERIAL LEGAL EXPERTS (Resolution of the First International Conference on Private Aerial Law, October 27-November 6, 1925) Offices: Paris, France. American Section of the Committee: Stephen Latchford, of Maryland, Treaty Division, Department of State; Denis Mulligan, of New York, Chief, Enforcement Section, Bureau of Air Commerce, Department of Commerce; 1 Fred D. Fagg, Jr., Managing Director of the Air Law Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; Joseph P. Tumulty, Jr., New York, New York. Technical Adviser to the American Section of the Committee: Howard Osterhout, New York, New York.2 Technical Assistants to the American Section of the Committee: John Jay Ide, Technical Assistant in Europe for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Paris, France; James Hopkins Smith, Jr., New York, New York.3 4 The International Technical Committee of Aerial Legal Experts was created as a result of a resolution adopted at the First International Conference on Private Aerial Law, which met in Paris on October 27, 1925. The Experts' Committee was organized for the purpose of developing a comprehensive code of private aerial law through the adoption of international conventions on various subjects of private aerial law. The first session of the Committee was held in Paris in May 1926, and the Committee has held annual sessions since that time. 1 1 Mr. Mulligan was appointed Aeronautical Expert, Bureau of Air Commerce, Department of Commerce, on November 19, 1935. 2 Mr. Osterhout was appointed Technical Adviser on August 26, 1935. 3 Mr. Smith was appointed Technical Assistant on August 26, 1935. *More commonly referred to as the C.I.T.E.J.A., from the initials of the French name of the Committee, "Comité International Technique d'Experts Juridiques Aériens". The preliminary draft conventions are prepared by four commissions, which are in effect subcommittees, established by the Committee. Sessions of one or more of the four commissions are held during the first half of the year and again during the second half. The annual meeting of the full committee usually takes place immediately following the sessions of the commissions, which are held during the second half of the year. Between the annual sessions of the Committee much of the work of the commissions is done through correspondence between the experts of the Committee and the reporters of the commissions. This work includes the answering of questionnaires in connection with the preparation of draft conventions. When draft conventions on given subjects have been adopted by the appropriate commissions, they are referred to the International Technical Committee of Aerial Legal Experts for consideration. If approved by the Committee, the drafts are afterward considered at a general international conference on private aerial law called for the purpose of taking definitive action on the drafts. Three such conferences have been held, the first in Paris in 1925, the second in Warsaw in 1929, and the third in Rome in 1933. The Committee is composed of representatives from 33 countries. The United States participates in the work of the Committee as a result of the enactment by Congress of Public Resolution 118, approved February 14, 1931.1 PAN AMERICAN COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED STATES (Resolutions of the Third and Seventh International Conferences of American States, 1906 and 1933) Members of the National Committee: Spruille Braden, of New York, Chairman; Frank L. Polk, of New York; James W. Gerard, of New York; Henry Morgenthau, Sr., of New York; Joseph P. Grace, of New York; The Very Reverend John F. O'Hara, of Indiana; John L. Merrill, of New York; George Grafton Wilson, of Massachusetts; Isaiah Bowman, of New York; Stephen Pierce Duggan, of New York; Adolf Berle, Jr., of New York. 146 Stat. 1162. Executive Committee of the National Committee: The Pan American Committee was first organized in accordance with a resolution adopted at the Third International Conference of American States, which met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1906. Similar resolutions have been adopted by succeeding conferences. Pursuant to a resolution adopted by the Seventh International Conference of American States, which was held in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1933, the Pan American Committee of the United States was reorganized in September 1935. The national Pan American Committees are composed of persons who are actively interested in the inter-American conferences and who, therefore, may be expected to encourage their respective governments to adopt measures in line with the conventions and resolutions adopted at the conferences. The Committees may further be expected to foster any movement which has as its object the improvement of inter-American relations. PAN AMERICAN RAILWAY COMMITTEE (Resolutions of the First and Fifth International Conferences of American States, 1889-90 and 1923) Verne LeRoy Havens, of the United States of America. National Committee for the United States: The International Railway Commission was established in accordance with a resolution of the First International Conference of American States which met in Washington in 1889. This Commis1Deceased, January 16, 1936. sion was established for the purpose of determining the feasibility of an international railway from New York to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Commission made surveys, the results of which were published in seven volumes in 1898. The name of the Commission was later changed to the Pan American Railway Committee. It has submitted reports to each of the succeeding seven conferences of American States which have met since 1889 and is continuing its efforts with a view to the eventual completion of the inter-American railway, of which, at the present time, approximately 7,000 miles have been constructed. (Hague conventions of July 29, 1899 and October 18, 1907 for the pacific settlement of international disputes 2) Offices: The Hague, Netherlands. American Members: Elihu Root, of New York; John Bassett Moore, of New York; Manley O. Hudson, of Massachusetts. The Permanent Court of Arbitration was created under article 20 of the convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes; which was signed at The Hague on July 29, 1899 (32 Stat. 1779), and maintained under article 41 of the new convention signed at The Hague on October 18, 1907 (36 Stat. 2199). The Court consists of persons of known competency in questions of international law, four of whom, at the most, are selected by each of the contracting powers. The Permanent Court of Arbitration is not a court in the ordinary sense; nor was it intended to be such. Its awards are often more in the nature of a compromise aiming to please both parties than in the nature of decisions arrived at by the application of strict legal rules. It is not permanently in session, since it can only be constituted by a joint act and the cooperation of both parties to a dispute; and there is no continuity in its decisions, since the arbitrators are selected by the parties to each controversy, and usually different individuals act as arbitrators in each case. 1 For an account of the International Bureau of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, see p. 115 of this publication. 232 Stat. 1779; 36 Stat. 2199. |