I wish to congratulate Steven Pfeiffer and his colleagues for arranging this session under the chairmanship of Professor Rosalyn Higgins, in which issues of international law figure. It is important that members of the practicing bar consider problems of international law, for at least two reasons.

One reason is that such problems arise in the course of practice, for most lawyers occasionally if at all, for an increasing number of lawyers, more frequently. Issues of security of foreign investment and international environmental protection by no means are the exclusive province of governmental ministries and of international institutions such as the International Court of Justice. They are encountered in private practice more and more.

The second reason is that education in and exposure to international law is no less important to the practicing lawyer than is his education in and exposure to constitutional law. The number of lawyers who may have a constitutional case in the course of their practice may be small but study of constitutional law is taken for granted. It is part of the general education of any lawyer. Not dissimilarly, international law also plays a role in the framework and fabric of international life. The literate lawyer who is a citizen of the world and a participant in its international economic processes should no more ignore and be ignorant of international law than should the lawyer who is engrossed in municipal practice ignore and be ignorant of constitutional law.

I wish also to congratulate Ambassador Christopher Pinto and Mr. Elihu Lauterpacht on their substantial and acute papers.