The United Nations

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The American Constitution established a government with power to act; the United Nations Charter set up an instrument for international cooperation. “Both,” Benjamin Cohen says, “created an organism capable of life and growth…depending not simply on the written injunctions of the founding fathers but on the vision and wisdom of succeeding generations.”

These Oliver Wendell Holmes Lectures (1961) are written in a spare, firm style, excluding trivialities and expressing the author’s remarkable acumen. The first—“Charter Power: The Competence of United Nations Organs under the Charter”—describes the setting in broad perspective. The second—“Responsibilities of Member States under the Charter”—deals with major problems. The third envisages the future with restraint and wisdom.