, it is in
other cases equally valuable to have a cause decided in legal fashion by
a judge. The experience which we have so far had of arbitral tribunals
shows that they make praiseworthy efforts to arrive at a finding which
shall as far as possible satisfy both parties, and that they have in
view a compromise rather than a genuine declaration of law. Now the
cases are, all the same, numerous enough in which the parties want a
real, genuine declaration of law, and so it would be most valuable if a
real international court were in existence. In the determination to
erect an International Prize Court it has been recognized that prize
cases ought not to be brought, from occasion to occasion, before an
arbitral tribunal and there peaceably arranged, but ought to be decided
by a real court on the basis of the law of prize. If success attends the
attempt to convert the Prize Court into a general international court or
if a special international court is created, this would render it
possible to have other international legal disputes also decided by a
real court upon naked principles of law. Such a possibility is in the
interest of the parties and also in that of international law itself,
for it will be held in higher and surer esteem if a court is provided
for its authoritative interpretation and application.

[Sidenote: Fundamentals of arbitration in contradistinction to
administration of justice by a court.]

58. The second ground referred to is that it is a fundamental part of
the idea of arbitration that in every case the choice of the arbiters as
men in whom the parties have confidence should be left to the parties
themselves, whilst it is fundamental in the conception of a court that
it is once and for all composed of judges appointed independently of the
choice of the parties and permanently to adjudicate upon matters of
law. Such a court secures continuity of jurisprudence, affords a
guarantee for the most exact examination of questions of fact and of
law, deems itself to a greater or a less degree bound by its previous
decisions, contributes thereby to the settlement of open legal
questions, and furthers the growth of law while adding to the respect in
which it is held. Nothing can heighten the respect in which
international law is held more than the existence of a real
international court.

[Sidenote: Opposition to a real international court.]

59. But, incredible as it may sound, this is not generally rec