International Law: There's a Will; Is There a Way?

With Asia in flames and the U.N. in shambles, cynics may grimly smile at the notion that "international law" exists—let alone that it can produce international peace. Yet last week, 3,000 jurists met in Washington for the second world conference aimed at turning that dream into reality. With 1,000 delegates from 110 countries, it was the biggest gathering of international jurists in the history of the world.

The conference was the brainchild of Charles S. Rhyne, past president of the American Bar Association, who started a "lawyer-to-lawyer" movement in 1963 with an Athens conference of 1,000 lawyers from 105...