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1959] ADJUDICATION IN INTERNATIONAL RIVER DISPUTES 37 I\:) 0_) ...~ '''"''' of its objection tested by third-party determination, The rule of law as formulated by the State Department and by the American Branch Committee of the International Law Association protects the proposing riparian from a stalemate that in effect would amount to a veto. This r6Ie of arbitration provides a means of protecting each side from the un- fortunate consequences of acts justified only by unilateral decision. .. .. .. Let us now turn to the even greater r6le that can be played by a com- , mitment given by each side to resort to third-party determination, A commitment to submit to adjudication may prevent stalemates and pro- mote a more constructive solution by inducing restraint and reasonableness on both sides'" This is beautifully illustrated in the Lake Lanoux Case. The question submitted in the case of Lake Lanoux was, it will be recalled, a relatively simple one. The dispute in its earlier stages was anything but simple. But on July 10, 1929, twelve years after the beginning of the dispute, France and Spain signed a general arbitration treaty under which they agreed to submit all unresolved disputes either to arbitration or to adjudication by the World Court. As will be seen, the recognition of this obligation, together with the realization that new uses coming later into being might induce an impartial tribunal to award less than could be won by mutual accommodation, undoubtedly encouraged the successive coneessions that were made, until the only issue that remained was, as has been seen, a very simple one. ' Lake Lanoux lies wholly within French territory and is fed entirely by streams rising in France. It empties naturally through a tributary of the Carol which crosses into Spain and empties into the Segre River. Since 1917, France and Spain had been unable to come to terms on the question of the right of France to proceed with the utilization of the waters of Lake Lanoux under several plans advanced over the years. France contemplated using the Lanoux as a reservoir and then diverting its waters to the basin of the Ariege, a wholly French river, where it could profit by a precipitous drop for the production of electric energy'" 22 lilt is important, too, to bear in mind tha~ the mere fact that a court is open for dealing with disputes and that the parties may be compelled to appear before it is often enough to spur parties into settling their differences amicably out of court. This might well be the C8Jl6 in Bome international disputes as wen as in eases of a private nature." ((International Order Under Law," address by William P. Rogers, Attorney General of the United State., prepared for delivery at the Forty-Eighth Biennial Conference of the International Law -Association, New York University Law Center, New York, N. Y., Sept. 2, 1968; Mimeographed Release of the Department of Justice, p.9 (1958); 39 Dept. of State Bulletin 536 at 539 (1958). 23 According to the French M6moire, Lake Lanoux, one of the largest Pyrenean lakes, lies at an alt-itude of approximately 2,174 meters, is about three kilometers in length and 600 meters in width, and has a surface of 86 hectares. Its depth is at some points as great as 63 meters. The volume of water it collects naturally is about 17 million cubic meters. The planned construction of a barrage of the height of 45 meters would turn Lake Lanoux into a reservoir capable of storing approximately 70 million cubic meters of water. The water would be channeled through a tunnel toward