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65 Am. J. Int'l L. 411 (1971)
Book Reviews and Notes

handle is hein.journals/ajil65 and id is 419 raw text is: BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES LO GROSS Book Review Editor Social Justice in the Law of Nations: The ILO Impact after Fifty Years. By C. Wilfred Jenks. London, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. pp. ix, 94. Index. 12 s.; $2.50. This book, consisting of three chapters, is an expansion of the Hersch Lauterpacht Lectures delivered before the Faculty of Law of the Univer- sity of Cambridge in February, 1969, on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anni- versary of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Their theme is the crucial problem of contemporary international law, a problem that in- volves the citizen as well as the lawyer. Noting the rapidly changing nature of the world, the author poses the question whether the law can keep pace with life, or whether its failure to keep pace with life, and the loss of respect for the rule of law resulting from such failure, will be a tragically decisive element in the disintegration of the whole social order. Initially, reference is made to the functioning of international law in the continuing effort over the past decades to create an organized world community and the issue thus posed as to the adequacy of existing con- cepts of the law for contemporary social functions. The author takes the view that the law is in constant motion and he formulates the targets set by the international community for the contemporary progress of law in these words: The law must protect the common peace, must promote the common welfare, and must provide an orderly discipline for the relent- lessness of change. An analysis of the three postulates contained in this quotation demonstrates that they encompass every facet of life in our modem society. If the law of nations is to be responsive to the wide- ranging needs of our changing society, a whole series of new major branches of the law must be developed within the next generation. The half-cen- tury of pioneering experience of the ILO in furthering social justice within the realm of law through unique diplomatic and legal techniques, in pro- viding a constitutional framework for social justice, and in giving a specific content to the general concept of social justice, is examined within this context to explore whether such experience is relevant in bringing other fields of policy within the rule of law in order to achieve the desired re- sponsiveness. Chapter 2 treats the constitutional framework of social justice provided by the structure and procedure of the ILO. After briefly noting important areas of progress achieved by the ILO during the last 50 years, five essen- tial elements are examined which have enabled the ILO to achieve this progress and to bring a new field of human activity within the ambit of the