INTERNATIONAL LAW-IMMUNITY OF UNITED NATIONS REPRESENTATIVE FROM JURISDICTION OF MUNICIPAL COURTS

An action for separate maintenance was initiated in a New York court against China\u27s permanent representative to the United Nations, who appeared specially and moved to set aside the service of summons on the ground of diplomatic immunity. Exemption from suit was claimed under the Headquarters Agreement between the United States and the United Nations, which granted certain resident representatives of member states diplomatic privileges and immunities. Held, defendant was entitled to diplomatic immunity and service of summons should be set aside. Tsiang v. Tsiang, 86 N.Y.S. (2d) 556 (1949)

FINDERS--APPLICATION OF STATUTE TO FINDER OF STOLEN NON-NEGOTIABLE BONDS

Plaintiff found a box containing twenty registered $1000 United States bonds and other non-negotiable securities, which had been stolen from defendants. Plaintiff turned them over to the sheriff who returned them to defendants. The bonds were endorsed Not Transferable and were payable only to the owner named thereon. Defendants had promptly notified the United States Treasury of the theft, and by fulfilling certain requirements, could have obtained duplicate certificates and bonds. Plaintiff sued for a reward of ten per cent of the face value of the securities under an Iowa statute which provided for a reward of ten per cent of the value of the property for finding lost goods, money, bank notes and other things. Held, plaintiff found only evidence of the obligations of the government and not the obligations themselves. He was therefore not entitled to a reward of ten per cent of the face value of the bonds. De Young v. Foster, (Iowa 1948) 32 N.W. (2d) 664

INTERNATIONAL LAW-INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE-ADVISORY OPINIONS-ADMISSION TO MEMBERSHIP IN THE UNITED NATIONS

The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, and the Statute of the Court forms an integral part of the United Nations Charter. The Court is essentially a continuation of the Permanent Court of International Justice, which operated in connection with the League of Nations. Like its predecessor, the Court is composed of fifteen judges, nominated in a manner designed to ensure impartiality and elected by the General Assembly and the Security Council voting separately upon a list of nominees

INTERNATIONAL LAW-SELF-EXECUTING TREATIES-THE GENOCIDE CONVENTION

The crime of genocide is committed when a person is harmed because of his nationality, race or religion. Because of the number of offenses committed with genocidal motives during and before the last war, and the shortcomings of the customary international law rules on the subject, the General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously adopted a Convention on Genocide, which has been submitted for ratification by the members, including the United States

INTERNATIONAL LAW-ACCIDENTS IN INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORTATION-LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

Plaintiff, known professionally as Jane Froman, sought damages of one million dollars for injuries received when defendant\u27s transatlantic plane crashed at Lisbon, Portugal. Before the flight, defendant prepared tickets for plaintiff and other passengers scheduled to entertain troops overseas and delivered them to a USO Camp Shows\u27 employee in charge of arranging transportation for the group. Plaintiff had not expressly authorized the USO employee to receive the ticket in her behalf. She was unaware of the plane\u27s exact destination. Held, a ticket invoking the liability limitations of the Warsaw Convention was delivered as a matter of law. Ross v. Pan American Airways, 299 N.Y. 88, 85 N.E. (2d) 880 (1949)

Price-Distorting Compensation Serving the Consumer and Taxpayer Interest

In this paper we address a bothersome question for public choice analysis: Why do consumers and taxpayers acquiesce to seemingly inefficient wealth transfers to a relatively small number of producers? The most common and briefest answer given by political economists is that any individual consumer/taxpayer suffers too little in the rent-seeking game to bear the cost of opposing the aggressive political influence of producers who enjoy the concentrated benefits. In this paper we examine an alternative answer lying in the potential benefits that accrue to consumers and taxpayers from price distorting wealth transfers to heterogeneous producers