Memorandum from Secretary of State Edward Stettinius to President Harry S. Truman

SEGRET E.O. 11652. Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or E DECLASSIFIED of State letter, Aug. 10. 1972 Dept. DINIT-HC NARS DEPARTMENT OF STATE WASHINGTON April 23, 1945 MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT Subject: The Conference of the Committee of Jurists. As proposed at Dumbarton Oaks and confirmed at Yalta, a Committee of Jurists representative of 44 nations met in Washington from April 9 thru 20 to develop recommendations to present to the San Francisco Conference on the statute of the new Court. The Committee took as a basis for its work the present statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice and made many changes, the more important of which are listed below. Briefly the court should be composed of fifteen judges, as is the present court; the judges to hold office for nine-year periods, one-third retiring every three years. It is to have jurisdiction over such cases as parties to the statute may agree to present to it. There is a strong feeling on the part of some of the representatives at the meeting of the Com- mittee of Jurists that the Court should have com- pulsory jurisdiction (that any government should have the right to bring a case before the Court against any other government without the necessity for special agreements). This would constitute a. departure from the present statute under which it is made optional with the parties to the statute of the Court to accept compulsory jurisdiction generally -NATIONAL ARCHIVES AN SERVICE* RECORDS CA company