The History of the Institute: Part II

1915-1954

The Grotius Society was founded in 1915 with Lord Reay KT as President and Professor Goudy DCL, Regius Professor of Civil Law, Oxford, as Vice-President. In the Introduction to Volume I of the Proceedings of the Grotius Society, Professor Goudy wrote that "the object of founding the Society has been to afford an opportunity to those interested in International Law of discussing from a cosmopolitan point of view the acts of the belligerent and neutral States in the present war and the problems to which it almost daily is giving birth". He went on to explain that the role of the new Society would not have been necessary had the already existing International Law Association, with its seat in London, been able to carry on its work, which was in fact hampered by having a considerable number of foreign members of belligerent or neutral nationality; it was for this reason that membership of the Grotius Society was initially restricted to British subjects, without excluding, "as occasion offers", foreign international lawyers as honorary or corresponding members, or an invitation to "non-members to read Papers" to the Society or to take part in the Society's discussions. Professor Goudy added, however, that it was not intended "to discuss international questions from a purely British standpoint. International Law, if it is to have any standing authority, must be based on the fundamental principle of human rights and must give effect to the common welfare of nations". He concluded with a critical statement of "military necessity" and "reprisals" as alleged exceptions to the rules of International Law.

In the forty-four volumes of the Transactions of the Grotius Society covering the years 1915 to 1959 the text of some 380 lectures given at meetings of the Society in London, at conferences organised by the Society in London or in the Provinces, were regularly printed. These lectures stretched over a wide field of International Law, extending after World War I far beyond the role of International Law in time of war. Even if my figure of 380 for the total number of lectures given is not strictly accurate, it emphasises a very important characteristic of the Grotius Society's work. This is that the lectures as such attracted a regular core of Grotius Society members and thereby strengthened the Society as a social as well as a legal institution.

Although it is not feasible within the confines of this short paper to give any adequate account of all the subjects covered by lectures given to the Grotius Society, the paper presented in 1956 (see Volume XLII of the Transactions of the Grotius Society) by Mr. G. Tracey Watts, its Honorary Librarian, bore the title "Forty Years of the Grotius Society". It may be used here selectively to illustrate some of the memorable events in the Society's history.

Thus, it is stated that the original members of the Grotius Society numbered thirty-five and that the name, Grotius Society, was suggested by one of them, Dr. Thomas Baty DCL, LL.D. (In the list of members at 31 December 1958, as given in Volume XLIII of the Grotius Society Transactions, the Honorary Members are stated to number six, Associated Members ten, Corresponding Members twenty-five and Ordinary Members 201.)

By 1919, with the War over, the title of Transactions was altered from "Problems of War and Peace" to "Problems of Peace and War" and new premises were found at No. 2, King's Bench Walk with the International Law Association. There it was possible to start a collection of books relating to International Law (which under the title of the "Grotius Library" is now housed in the offices of the British Institute).

In 1920 Lord Birkenhead, the Lord Chancellor, President Woodrow Wilson, James Brown Scott LL.B, General the Rt. Hon. Jan Christian Smuts KC, LL.D, MA, Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, and Senator Elihu Root were elected as Honorary Members of the Society. In 1921, at the sixth Annual General Meeting, the Lord Chancellor made a speech (although the text has been lost) and in 1923, at the Annual General Meeting, a later Lord Chancellor, the Rt. Hon. Viscount Cave, was elected President of the Society. At the 10th Annual General Meeting in 1925 Lord Blanesburgh was elected President; this was followed by a banquet in celebration of the publication of Hugo Grotius' De Jure Belli et Pacis. In 1928 Hugh Bellot DCL, Honorary Secretary of the Society since its foundation, died and was succeeded by Mr. Wyndham Bewes.

In 1935, at the 20th Annual General Meeting, Lord Macmillan, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, referred to the suggestion made by Lord Atkin as Chairman of a Committee appointed by the Lord Chancellor that London would soon become the home of an Institute of Legal Research and of a "really great institution of post-graduate legal study". (This was an anticipation of the foundation of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, which now shares premises with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square.)

In February 1939 a tablet on which were inscribed in English the concluding words of Grotius' De Jure Belli et Pacis was unveiled by the Earl of Athlone, Chancellor of London University, in the Dutch Reformed Church, Austin Friars, London E.C.2. The project had been inaugurated by the Executive Committee of the Grotius Society and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands sent an appreciative message. Following the ceremony a large company was entertained to a luncheon by the Master and Wardens of the Worshipful Company of Drapers. But in World War II, which followed in the same year, the Church, originally presented by Edward VI to the Dutch Protestant Worshippers 400 years before, was destroyed and although it seems that the tablet survived, no vestige of it has since been found. A photograph of it, however, appears as frontispiece in the 25th Volume of the Transactions of the Grotius Society.

In 1940 at the 25th Annual General Meeting of the Grotius Society, Sir Cecil Hurst GCMG, KCB, KC, former President of the Permanent International Court of Justice, was elected President of the Grotius Society. On that occasion an address was delivered by the Lord Chancellor, the Rt. Hon. Viscount Caldecote. He referred to a remark recently made in the House of Lords that International Law was so difficult and obscure that only a very brave layman would dare to speak about it. In his reply, Sir Cecil Hurst agreed and said that it was for the Grotius Society to make International Law more accessible to the non-specialist lawyer and to the layman alike. In particular, he emphasised the importance of teaching International Law to practising and academic lawyers alike.

In 1943 Rule 2, dealing with the Objects of the Society, was amended to read, "The Objects of the Society shall be to afford facilities for the study, discussion and advancement of Public and Private International Law, and to make suggestions for their reform". The membership provision of the Rules was also changed to consist of (1) Members who were British nationals; (2) Associate Members, i.e. non-British nationals permanently resident in the United Kingdom; (3) Corresponding Members, i.e. non-British nationals not resident in the United Kingdom; and (4) Honorary Members.

In 1944 came the death of Dr. William Roosegaarde Bisschop, who had been Honorary Secretary of the Grotius Society and of the International Law Association. He was succeeded as Honorary Secretary of the Grotius Society by Dr. C.J. Colombos (who continued in that office until his retirement in 1955). In 1945 the President of the Grotius Society returned to the subject of the need for better education in International Law and at the 31st Annual General Meeting in 1946 he said that, "The study of International Law in Great Britain at present falls rather within the power of the specialist. The man in the street knows very little about it [but it is] the function of the Society to endeavour to popularise the subject and particularly to get the younger generation to take a greater interest in its development".

In 1948 at the 33rd Annual General Meeting, Sir Cecil Hurst was succeeded as President by Sir Arnold (later Lord) McNair CBE, KC, LL.D, FBA, and a presentation was made to Sir Cecil Hurst of his portrait by William Dring ARA by the Lord Chancellor, the Rt. Hon. Viscount Jowitt, in recognition of Sir Cecil's services as President. Sir Cecil in reply made a plea for younger men to carry on the work of the Grotius Society in encouraging a better and greater understanding of International Law.

In July 1949 the Grotius Society's International Law Conference was held in the Inner Temple under the chairmanship of the Society's President, Sir Arnold McNair (as he then was). At the preceding dinner Mr. Justice Hodson MC, proposing the health of "International Law and the Grotius Society" said that ignorance of International Law was betrayed not only by many practising lawyers in England but also by judges.

In 1950 at the Society's 35th Annual General Meeting Sir Arnold McNair resigned from the office of President, in view of his duties at the International Court at the Hague, and was succeeded as President of the Grotius Society by Sir Patrick Spens KBE, KC, MP, formerly Chief Justice of India.

Also in 1950 at the Annual General Meeting a resolution of the Executive Committee was approved to the effect that no case had been made out for the amalgamation of the Grotius Society with the British Branch of the International Law Association.

The Society's International Law Conference in 1950 was held in the Middle Temple Hall and at the dinner preceding it the health of "The Grotius Society and International Law" was proposed by the Attorney General, Sir Hartley Shawcross KC, MP, who spoke of the importance for the Society to obtain the full support of the Bench and the legal profession.

In May 1951 at the first of its Provincial Meetings in New College, Oxford, the Attorney General, the Rt. Hon. Sir Frank Soskice KC, MP, spoke on "Some Practical Aspects of International Law" and the meetings were largely attended by graduate and undergraduate members of the University.

At the Annual General Meeting in April 1952 Sir Eric Beckett KCMG, QC, was elected President. Also in that year at the dinner preceding the Society's International Conference in London the Rt. Hon. Lord Asquith of Bishopstone PC observed of International Law that few subjects so vital were known to so few; it was deplorable that it was difficult to interest either the man in the street or the average student in International Law.

At the dinner before the Society's Law Conference in 1953 Sir Lionel Heald QC, MP, Attorney General, in proposing the by now customary health of "The Grotius Society and International Law" suggested that the Society had not made International Law sufficiently attractive to members of the Bar who were apt to think of it as an academic subject of which they did not know anything and only a subject for experts.

In 1954, on the retirement of Sir Eric Beckett as President on the grounds of ill health, Sir Harold Duncan KCMG, QC, former Legal Adviser to the Dominions and Colonial Office, was elected in his stead.

Part III:1954-1958