Sohn Suggests World Court Act To Solve French Algeria Crisis

A Law School professor offered a solution yesterday to the present dispute between France and the United Nations over the Algerian issue. The French have withdrawn their permanent U.N. delegation in a protest against the General Assembly's decision to discuss the North African problem.

Louis B. Sohn, professor of Law and the John Harvey Gregory Lecturer on World Organization, said that the International Court of Justice should decide whether or not the U.N. has the right to investigate what the French call "an internal problem." By delegating the problem Sohn felt neither party would lose prestige, and the dispute could be settled peacefully.

In a letter to the New York Times, Sohn said that "White The Algerian issue is a highly political one, it raises at the same time a basic constitutional question of charter interpretation. Past experience shows that his kind of question cannot be decided simply by counting votes in the General Assembly; it requires a calm, impartial approach which can be found only in the halls of justice."

Although France has refused to accept the Assembly's decision. Sohn believes it would accept a decision from the International Court. "Though France is unwilling," he said, "to abide by a decision of the Assembly, which it considers patently unconstitutional, it has always in the past accepted court judgements."