members of the Office of the Legal Adviser, devoting full time to the project. The work of the following members of this staff is gratefully acknowledged: Harold S. Burman, Abigail J. Cooley, Edison W. Dick, Marcia M. Fleming, Mona H. Gagnon, Alice M. McDiarmid, Peter H. Pfund, Stephen C. Schott, Jerome H. Silber, and Julia W. Willis. Other members of the Office of the Legal Adviser who have given generously of their time in preparing particular materials, are Charles I. Bevans, Eliezer Ereli, Thomas T. F. Huang, Katherine Fite Lincoln, John Maktos, Eleanor C. McDowell, Virginia V. Meekison, William E. Murnighan, Alan F. Neidle, Sylvia E. Nilsen, Herbert K. Reis, Frederick Smith, Jr., Marten H. A. Van Heuven, and William V. Whittington. Miss Marian Nash, Foreign Service Officer and Attorney, Robert D. Johnson, Chief Counsel, Passport Office, and John W. Perry, Office of the General Counsel, Department of the Air Force, have contributed valuable research in their respective fields of competence. To the above-named persons, and others throughout the Department of State and other Departments and Agencies of the Government, who have supplied specific materials or have read manuscript or proofs, I express thanks. Appreciation is also expressed to those of my staff who assisted in checking the manuscript and galley proofs. To date, those who have assisted in this meticulous work are Fred E. Arnold, Robert P. Bannerman, Lawrence Baskir, Russell S. Berman, Abigail J. Cooley, Joseph L. Liberati, Earle McCaskill, Scott R. Schoenfeld, and John Kirkwood White. To the Librarian of the Department of State, Fred W. Shipman, and members of the Library staff, including Myra J. DeBerry, and to Rosine Pilliod, Law Librarian, I am indebted. Appreciation is expressed to the office of Records and Reference Branch of the Department of State, particularly to Eugene J. Hennigan, former Chief of the Reference Section, and Wilmer P. Sparrow, now Chief of the Reference Section, and their staff, charged with the Department's files. Additionally, thanks is given Paul T. Ayscue for his assistance in connection with making records available for publication. John O. Hemard, Chief, and Constance G. Gaynor, Alace M. Harvey, Dorothy B. Thomas, and Mae Hahlen of the Reference and Documents Section of the Bureau of International Organization Affairs. have been extremely helpful in providing United Nations documentation. To the Staff of the Division of Reproduction and Distribution Services, thanks is expressed for their many services. I am indebted to the Division of Publishing Services of the Department of State for the fine cooperation of the former Chief of the Division, Norris E. Drew, and for that of the present Chief of the Division, Jerome H. Perlmutter. I am extremely grateful to Joseph J. Moriarty, Acting Chief of the Law and Treaties Section of that Division, and those who have from time to time worked with him in editing the manuscript, including Ruth L. McKinnon, Blanche H. Mullan, Lorna K. Newby, Grace C. Reynolds, and Donald W. Ricketts. For painstaking proofreading, I am grateful to Otis E. Camp, Isla V. Davies, Bertha J. Hartman, Ruth McKinnon, Rozelle Parra, Mary Jane Yakshevich, and John J. Lee, who is also preparing a comprehensive index for the entire Digest. To all those skilled people in the Government Printing Office who have been engaged on this project, I express thanks. Additionally, I desire to thank those who were my secretaries throughout the period of the preparation of this Digest of International Law, particularly Lillie B. Dowrick for her long and devoted assistance. M. M. W. South-West Africa (8 37) Establishment of the International Trusteeship System (§ 38) Conclusion of Trusteeship Agreements (§ 39) Kinds of Trust Territories: Strategic and Nonstrategic (§ 40) Legal Nature of International Trusteeship System (§ 42) Responsibilities of Administering Authorities (§ 43) Alteration of Trusteeship Agreements (§ 44) Termination of Trusteeship Agreements (§ 45) Governments Chapter I INTERNATIONAL LAW1 GENERAL NATURE §1 International law is the standard of conduct, at a given time, for Definition states and other entities subject thereto. It comprises the rights, privileges, powers, and immunities of states and entities invoking its provisions, as well as the correlative fundamental duties, absence of rights, liabilities, and disabilities. International law is, more or less, in a continual state of change and development. In certain of its aspects the evolution is gradual; in others it is avulsive. International law is based largely on custom, e.g., on practice, and whereas certain customs are recognized as obligatory, others are in retrogression and are recognized as nonobligatory, depending upon the subject matter and its status at a particular time. Over varying periods of time certain international practices have been found to be reasonable and wise in the conduct of foreign relations, in considerable measure the result of a balancing of interests. Such practices have attained the stature of accepted principles or norms and are recognized as international law or practice. Accordingly, there are in the field of international law, public and private, certain well-recognized principles or norms. The recognized customs prevailing between states and other subjects of international law are reflected not only in international practice per se but also in international treaties and agreements, in the general principles of law recognized by states, in judicial and arbitral decisions, and in the works of qualified scholars. Based largely on custom, thus reflected and recognized, international law is, to a considerable extent, unwritten in form and uncodified. International law is evidenced by international agreement, by international custom or practice, and by the general norms of civilization. As evidence of such agreements, custom or practice, and norms, resort may appropriately be had to treaties and agreements and, secondarily, to their subsequent interpretation and application; to the practice 'In this connection, see prior U.S. digests of international law, particularly: I, Wharton, International Law Digest (2d ed., 1887), ch. I § 8; I Moore, International Law Digest (1906), ch. I, pp. 1 ff.; and I Hackworth, Digest of International Law (1940), ch. I, pp. 1 ff. |