The History of the Institute: Part III

1954-1958

On 25 March 1954 a proposal was made by the Society of Comparative Legislation and International Law that the Grotius Society should co-operate with it in setting up a "British Institute of International and Comparative Law", but with the members of the two Societies retaining their present identities and continuing, as far as they desired, their present activities. (Although this "Formal Proposition" was recommended for agreement by the Executive Committee at the 38th Annual General Meeting held in April 1954, it was agreed that the matter should be held in abeyance pending further discussions with the Society of Comparative Legislation, which eventually resulted in the incorporation documents of 17 November 1958.)

In 1955 at the dinner preceding the Society's International Conference, the now familiar toast of "The Grotius Society and International Law" was proposed by the Attorney General, the Rt. Hon. Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller QC, MP who referred to the high prestige which the Society and the fifty volumes of its Transactions enjoyed throughout the whole Commonwealth. At the dinner the President and the Hon. Secretary of the Grotius Society were invested with the insignia of Commander in the Order of Orange Nassau on behalf of Her Majesty, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.

At the Annual General Meeting on 3 April 1956, the following were elected as officers of the Society for the coming year: as President, Sir Gerald Gray Fitzmaurice KCMG, QC; as Vice-President, Sir Harold Duncan KCMG, QC; as Hon. Treasurer, Dr. F.A. Mann LL.D; as Hon. Secretary, Mr. Richard O'Sullivan QC; and as Hon. Librarian, Mr. G. Tracey Watts.

From the Report of the Executive Committee 1956-7 (see Volume XLII of the Transactions of the Grotius Society) it appears that ten lectures were delivered under the auspices of the Society during the period, either at ordinary meetings of the Society, at a Provincial Meeting in Bristol University, or at an International Law Conference of the Society; all these lectures were published in Volume XLII.

At the annual dinner in the Inner Temple on 26 October 1956, Sir Hartley Shawcross QC, MP proposed the "International Law and Grotius Society" toast. His speech was reported at length in Volume XLII of the Transactions of the Grotius Society. He spoke of the different methods of settling international disputes, whether by law or political compromise; of the regrettably growing popularity of repudiating international contracts; of the problem of lending money to other countries; of the danger of not including International Law in the examinations for the legal profession; and of the limited value of the Charter of the United Nations in the settlement of disputes or in the enforcement of the law.

In Volume XLIII of the Transactions of the Grotius Society in the year 1957 the Report of the Executive Committee records that the Provincial Conference was held in that year at Birmingham University at which two papers - one on "Piracy in Modern International Law" by [Professor] D.H.M. Johnson, and the other on "The Unknown Province in the Conflict of Laws" by Mr. Josef Unger LL.M - were read.

The International Conference of the Society in 1957 was held in Gray's Inn and at the dinner preceding it the principal guest was the Rt. Hon. Lord Strang GCB, GCMG, MBE. In his speech he referred to contacts made by him as a non-lawyer in the course of a long professional life with international lawyers and he emphasised the contrast between municipal law, which in a mature system is generally observed, and International Law which is "less comprehensive and less mature". (His speech is reported at length in Volume XLIII of the Grotius Society Transactions at pp. 5-13.)

In Volume XLIIII (the last of the pre-British Institute of International and Comparative Law volumes of the Transactions of the Grotius Society) no less than fifteen papers are printed which were read at ordinary meetings of the Society, at the Society's Annual Conference in 1958 or at its Provincial Conference held in the University of Southampton on 31 January 1959.

The foregoing broadly drawn and necessarily incomplete picture of the two Societies, which had left valuable legacies to the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in the form of achievements to develop or difficulties which are still waiting to be overcome, may be both expanded and sharpened in perspective by consulting the Journal of Comparative Legislation and The Transactions of the Grotius Society. All the present writer has been able to provide is a sketch of the foundations on which I felt the British Institute of International and Comparative Law had to be built when I arrived in 1960 at No. 1 Temple Gardens, as the British Institute's newly appointed Director.

Norman S Marsh QC

Director, The British Institute of International and Comparative Law: 1960 - 1965
Member of the Council of Management of the Institute: 1966 - 1997
General Editor, International and Comparative Law Quarterly: 1960 - 1965
Member of the Board of Editors of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly: 1966 - 1996