William Shakespeare wrote during the Elizabethan Renaissance, a period of revived and intense interest in history. The Life of Henry the Fifth, written in 1599, one of Shakespeare’s histories, is a patriotic, epic portrayal of a phase in the bloody Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) between England and France. It describes a medieval campaign led by a chivalrous and virtuous king, who could perhaps do wrong but not a great deal of wrong, and in which the few acting in a just cause defeat the many. In this play, Shakespeare relives past glories.

More than two centuries have elapsed since the signatories of the U.S. Declara^ tion of Independence sought to manifest two radical propositions. The first is that governments, instituted to secure the “unalienable rights” of their citizens, derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” We may call this the “democratic entitlement.” The second proposition, perhaps less noted by commentators, is that a nation earns “separate and equal station” in the community of states by demonstrating “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind.” The authors of the Declaration apparently believed that the legitimacy of the new Confederation of American States was not made evident solely by the transfer of power from Britain but also needed to be acknowledged by “mankind.” This we may perceive as a prescient glimpse of the legitimating power of the community of nations.

The material in this section is arranged according to the system employed in the annual Digest of United States Practice in International Law, published by the Department of State.

The reunification of Germany raised a variety of public international law questions that have been subjected to extensive scholarly review in Germany, where the interest is naturally intense. This report is designed to bring before American and other international lawyers the basic facts and issues pertaining to that important event.

The bilateral treaties concluded by Poland and Germany on November 14, 1990, and June 17, 1991, are an ideal illustration of the political and social changes in Central Europe. They were intended to constitute a turning point in the relations between the two neighbors, enemies for centuries that are now starting to construct a common future.

An election was held on December 5, 1991, to fill the casual vacancy on the International Court of Justice that resulted from the death of Judge T. O. Elias of Nigeria. Bola Adesumbo Ajibola, also of Nigeria, was elected to complete Judge Elias’s term for a two-year period from January 1992.

On September 26, 1991, the International Court of Justice issued an Order recording the discontinuance by Nicaragua of the proceedings in Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua and the removal of the case from the Court’s list. Nicaragua had expressed its wish to discontinue the proceedings against the United States in a letter to the Court of September 12, 1991, in which it cited agreements between the two countries “aimed at enhancing Nicaragua’s economic, commercial and technical development to the maximum extent possible.”