QUICK FACTS
Created Jan 0001
Status Verified Sarcastic
Type Existential Dread
Keywords
carol weiss king, new york city, communist, national lawyers guild, communist international, international red aid, international labor defense, civil rights congress, ann fagan ginger

International Juridical Association

“Right. Let's get this over with. You want a rewrite. Fine. Just don't expect me to enjoy it. And try not to be so…...”

Contents
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Etymology
  • 3. Cultural Impact

Right. Let’s get this over with. You want a rewrite. Fine. Just don’t expect me to enjoy it. And try not to be so… present.

International Juridical Association (IJA)

The International Juridical Association, or IJA as it was known, existed from 1931 to 1942. It was an organization comprised of American lawyers who, shall we say, possessed a certain social consciousness. Founded by Carol Weiss King , it was established in New York City . The U.S. federal government, specifically the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), cast a rather suspicious eye upon it, labeling it as “another early (communist ) front for lawyers.” The primary concern, and this carried over to its successor group, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) by 1942, was that the IJA had essentially appointed itself an agent for a foreign power whose interests were decidedly not aligned with those of the United States. A rather dramatic accusation, wouldn’t you agree? But then, drama is often in the eye of the beholder, or in this case, the committee.

History

Background

The lineage of the IJA, according to HUAC’s rather extensive account, traces back to 1922. That’s when the Communist International decided to get organized and established the International Red Aid , or “MOPR” as it was known by its Russian acronym. Its stated purpose? To provide material and moral support to those who found themselves imprisoned for the “victims of capitalism.” Quaint.

The resolutions and theses from the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, published in London by the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1922, laid this out. HUAC, in its own inimitable translation, interpreted MOPR’s role as protecting Comintern agents, described as “subversive,” whenever they encountered legal entanglements in foreign lands. It’s a rather convenient interpretation, of course.

By 1925, MOPR had extended its reach to America, creating a section known as the International Labor Defense (ILD). This ILD carried on its work until 1946, at which point it was absorbed by the Civil Rights Congress , another organization that, naturally, HUAC deemed a “new subversive organization.” The interconnectedness of these groups is, shall we say, noteworthy.

HUAC’s narrative suggests that the International Juridical Association (IJA) emerged in 1931 and maintained a “close cooperation” with the ILD. It’s almost as if they were all playing from the same playbook.

Establishment

The genesis of the IJA, according to a biography by Ann Fagan Ginger , can be attributed to Carol Weiss King. She apparently decided a trip to Europe was in order, and Russia, thanks to an advertisement for “12 thrilling days in the U.S.S.R.,” seemed like a rather appealing destination. The advertisement, incidentally, appeared in the communist literary magazine New Masses . While Ginger cites the summer of 1932 for this specific wording, a similar, albeit slightly earlier, advertisement in May 1931 with the enticing lead “To the Soviet Union!” and a matching itinerary suggests the seeds were sown a bit sooner.

In Moscow, King encountered Harry Shapiro, a graduate of Harvard Law School. Their discussions, it’s reported, revolved around the ILD and its Soviet counterpart, MOPR. Shapiro, it seems, was quite insistent that King help establish a new association of lawyers in the States. The goal? To “fight repression on many fronts,” as most of MOPR’s national sections were apparently operating outside the law. Shapiro even provided her with names in Berlin to seek out. Ginger’s account of this “trip” narrative bears a striking resemblance to the history of the NLG.

In Berlin, King connected with Dr. Alfred Apfel, who was heading a nascent group called the “International Juridical Association.” This organization already had established branches in Germany, France, and Austria, all falling under an “Organizing Committee” led by Apfel. Their stated purpose was the defense of civil liberties and labor unions. By all accounts, the IJA wasn’t shy about expansion; it spread to Czechoslovakia, Cuba, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, and Venezuela. Even Mahatma Gandhi was listed as a member. Imagine that.

Upon her return to the United States, King secured office space for the American section of the IJA in the St. Denis Building at 80 E 11th Street in New York. Ginger notes that within a few months, King had amassed forty-nine names from twenty states for the letterhead, a list that included not only the usual East Coast liberal luminaries but also writer Sherwood Anderson and a smattering from the South, Canada, and Puerto Rico. When funding became an issue, the IJA’s operations were relocated to King’s own office at 100 Fifth Avenue. A rather practical solution.

A HUAC report, however, adds another layer, asserting that George W. Anderson played a role in the IJA’s founding. This report claims Anderson helped establish a “legal bureau” in the U.S. in the early 1930s, which became the International Juridical Association. He was allegedly on the national committee of this “Communist-controlled offshoot of the International Labor Defense” by 1942 and served as legal advisor for the Committee for Citizenship Rights that same year, an entity purportedly designed to shield “Communist subversion” from legal repercussions. The report also pointedly mentions Anderson’s membership in the NLG.

It’s worth noting that both HUAC reports meticulously document the close ties between the IJA and the NLG and the “American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born ” (active from 1934 to 1952). The connections seem rather undeniable.

Merger into NLG

According to a HUAC report on the NLG, the IJA “quietly disappeared from the American scene in the early 1940s,” eventually merging into the NLG. The evidence cited for this transition is the December 1942 issue of the International Juridical Association Monthly Bulletin. This issue announced the bulletin’s absorption into the NLG’s Lawyers Guild Review. Furthermore, it declared that the IJA’s writers would be joining the editorial board of the Lawyers Guild Review, taking on the primary responsibility for the content within its new “IJA section.” A Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University confirms this absorption by 1943. It seems the IJA simply dissolved, its members and its publication finding a new home.

Issues Championed

Approach

From its very inception, Carol Weiss King envisioned the American branch of the IJA championing “civil liberties and labor law problems.” Her approach was quite deliberate: the IJA was not intended to compete with established defense groups like the ACLU, the ILD, or the NAACP. Instead, it was meant to assist them in their legal defense endeavors. Drawing inspiration from its European predecessors, King planned for the IJA to function as a legal research group. This group would host forums on pressing legal issues, draft new social legislation, prepare briefs for ongoing cases, and publish a monthly legal bulletin focusing on labor and civil rights law. By 1932, the IJA bulletin itself announced a broader commitment to supporting “human rights.” A noble, if perhaps ambitious, goal.

Activities

In 1931, the IJA lent its support to the case of Euel Lee, also known as “Orphan Jones.” Bernard Ades represented him, and King filed the necessary papers with the U.S. Supreme Court to request a hearing. Simultaneously, the IJA’s bulletin published a defense of August Yokinen, a communist facing deportation by the U.S. Government, a case that followed the Yokinen Show Trial in March 1931.

The following year, 1932, saw the IJA actively championing the Scottsboro Boys case before the U.S. Supreme Court. They recommended Walter Pollak of the ILD as legal counsel. The IJA also raised two critical constitutional issues: the denial of the right to counsel for the defendants and the exclusion of African-Americans from the jury, thus violating the right to trial by one’s peers. In May 1932, King, representing the IJA, joined a delegation of attorneys from Johns Hopkins University and the Union Theological Seminary to investigate the violent strikes occurring in Bell County, Kentucky .

Following the arrest of Angelo Herndon in Atlanta in July 1932, the IJA bulletin began to cover the case extensively. King subsequently assisted in researching the case when the ILD sought the IJA’s help. In the autumn of 1932, members of the IJA, including King and Joseph Brodsky , offered their support to the presidential candidacy of CPUSA leaders William Z. Foster and James W. Ford . Also in 1932, the IJA began its advocacy against government-initiated deportations, starting with its opposition to the Dies Deportation Bill. This advocacy bore some fruit in November 1932 when the Supreme Court ordered a retrial in the Scottsboro Boys case. In December 1932, King sent a telegram to President Herbert Hoover and then participated in a CPUSA-led Hunger March on Washington, a demonstration that followed a similar march in the UK earlier that fall.

In 1933, King lodged a formal protest with the German embassy concerning the arrest of Alfred Apfel by the newly established Nazi government. The IJA Monthly Bulletin reported Apfel’s arrest and subsequent death, alleging he had been subjected to torture. The IJA was instrumental in organizing an international campaign to pressure the Nazi government into releasing Georgi Dimitrov after his acquittal in the Reichstag Fire trial. During that same year, King, Nathan Greene , and other IJA members provided support for the labor cases of figures like Abe Isserman by conducting research and drafting complaints and briefs. Responding to a request from defense lawyer Benjamin J. Davis Jr. , the IJA agreed to review the legal brief filed in the Angelo Herndon case.

By 1934, King authored an article in the IJA bulletin outlining strategies for raising constitutional issues within state criminal proceedings. The IJA then offered specific recommendations for the Angelo Herndon case, arranging for Columbia University law professor Herbert Wechsler and former U.S. assistant solicitor general Whitney North Seymour to draft briefs. The association also organized a luncheon to honor Dr. Kurt Rosenfeld , a former Prussian Minister of Justice who had gone into exile from Nazi Germany.

The IJA faced a setback in May 1935 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against an appeal in the Angelo Herndon case. However, in June 1937, members of the IJA attended an ILD national conference in Washington, D.C., to review the events of the Memorial Day massacre of 1937 . In 1939, the IJA provided support to the United Shoe Workers -CIO in their dispute with the Bata Shoes Company, an enterprise that had come under Nazi control in 1938.

Victories

As it prepared to merge into the NLG, the IJA proudly listed several significant victories in its case record:

The IJA also played a supportive role in the successful releases of Tom Mooney , Warren Billings , and Georgi Dimitrov.

Furthermore, the IJA publicly supported several key pieces of U.S. Congressional legislation, including the Social Security Act , the Wagner Labor Relations Act , the Norris-LaGuardia Anti-Injunction Act , the Tennessee Valley Authority , and the Fair Labor Standards Act . It also backed Executive Order 8802 , which prohibited racial discrimination within defense industries. One can’t help but notice a pattern of alignment with progressive, and some would say leftist, policies.

Organization

Constitution

The inaugural issue of the IJA’s Monthly Bulletin featured the preamble to its constitution, which eloquently, if perhaps predictably, stated:

PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN SECTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL JURIDICAL ASSOCIATION

The American Section of the International Juridical Association subscribes to the declaration of principles of the International Juridical Association.

Present America offers the example of a country discarding traditions of liberty and freedom, and substituting legislative, administrate and judicial tyranny. This country, once known to the world as the haven of refuge of oppressed peoples now excludes, or deports, those daring to voice unpopular opinions; with a constitution supposed to protect freedom of expression, it now persecutes and imprisons its political dissenters.

The World War made clear that the constitutional guarantee of free speech could not and did no, protect expressions of real dissent. Liberties then swept away have never been recovered. The Post Office refuses the mails to printed matter expressing unpopular views. Criminal syndicalism and criminal anarchy statutes have outlawed meetings of members of minority organizations.

Thus the rights of free speech, free press and free assemblage disappear.

The American Section of the I. J. A. declares its purposes to be as follows:

  • To combat repressive legislation and resist increasing executive, judicial, legislative and administrative oppression.
  • To support progressive legislation.
  • To support the defense of political prisoners especially in the courts.
  • To expose and attack abuses in the administration of the law.
  • To combat oppression for political opinion, color, race, creed, sex, religious belief, or lack thereof, or for any other cause.
  • To rally to the support of workers and their organizations seeking to ameliorate and improve their conditions and against the forces of the state whenever and wherever the latter aligns itself on the side of special privilege.
  • To help establish in this country and throughout the world social and legal justice.

A rather comprehensive list of grievances and aspirations, wouldn’t you say?

Founders and Officers

According to HUAC, the initial officers of the IJA were:

Ann Fagan Ginger, however, lists the initial officers as:

The discrepancy is… interesting.

Members

By May 1932, Ginger indicates that the early IJA membership included:

By 1935, the roster had expanded to include:

By 1937, Max Krauthamar , who was also affiliated with the NLG, Lawyers Security League, ILD, and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, joined the ranks.

A 1940 report from the Municipal Civil Commission of New York identified IJA members as Max Lowenthal, Joseph R. Brodsky, Thomas I. Emerson, Robert L. Hale, Robert W. Kenny , Carol Weiss King, Shad Polier, and Lee Pressman. Later, on September 17, 1950, Lowenthal testified before HUAC, listing the following individuals as members of the National Lawyers Guild: John J. Abt, Joseph R. Brodsky, Bartley C. Crum , Thomas I. Emerson, Robert W. Kenny, Carol Weiss King, Shad Polier, Martin Popper, and Allan Rosenberg .

Further, according to HUAC reports from 1950 and 1959, other individuals who were IJA members, later became “leaders” of the NLG, and maintained active associations with the ILD included:

Justine W. Polier was also a member of the IJA’s editorial board. It was through IJA meetings that Shad Polier apparently met her.

The well-known Wobbly Elmer Smith was also listed as a member.

Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas served on the national committee.

Lee Pressman , along with Alger Hiss (both members of the Ware Group ), were also members of the IJA.

David Scribner, a civil rights and labor lawyer, was a member of both the IJA and the NLG.

Elias Lieberman , a labor lawyer, was also a member.

Criticism: Communism

In 1939, the Dies Committee initiated an investigation into the IJA, as part of its broader inquiry into the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). HUAC characterized the IJA as “Another early front for [communist] lawyers.” They asserted that its members were closely connected to the International Labor Defense and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), highlighting Alger Hiss as one of its prominent members. HUAC claimed the IJA actively defended Communists in various legal proceedings and that its actions consistently aligned with the “Communist Party line.” As early as a report dated March 29, 1944, HUAC had already classified the IJA as a communist “front.”

In its 1950 report on the NLG, which included a brief overview of the IJA, HUAC referenced the findings of the “New York City Council Committee Investigating the Municipal Civil Service Committee” (1940–1941). This committee, according to HUAC, stated that:

The bulletins of the International Juridical Association from its very inception show that it is devoted to the defense of the Communist Party, Communists, and radical agitators and that it is not limited merely to legal research but to sharp criticism of existing governmental agencies and defense of subversive groups.

HUAC further noted that an “examination of the [IJA monthly] bulletin reveals consistent support of Communist legal cases during its entire career.” In a footnote in his 1952 memoir, Whittaker Chambers commented:

In the early 1930s, Hiss had been a member of the International Juridical Association, of which the late Carol [Weiss] King, a habitual attorney for Communists in trouble, was a moving spirit. The International Juridical Association has been cited as subversive by the Attorney General. Also among its members: Lee Pressman, Abraham Isserman (one of the attorneys for the eleven convicted Communist leaders), Max Loewenthal (sic: should read “Max Lowenthal ”), author of a recent book attacking the F.B.I.

It’s a rather damning assessment, if one accepts HUAC’s premise.

Publications

Monthly Bulletin

Throughout its existence, the IJA published the International Juridical Association Monthly Bulletin. It was edited by Joseph Kovner and Nathan Greene, sometimes referred to as “Nuddy” Greene. A significant function of this bulletin was to document and report on “little cases” occurring across the country, effectively making it a de facto newspaper of record for such matters. HUAC’s 1950 report on the NLG specifically stated that “examination of the bulletin reveals consistent support of Communist legal cases during its entire career.” According to the Encyclopedia of the American Left, the IJA Bulletin was “widely considered the law journal of the Left.”

Early content from the bulletin included:

  • 1931: “Enjoining Free Speech: Review of a number of labor injunction cases” (June 1931).
  • 1932: “The Hosiery Workers Injunction at Nazareth, PA: Decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court; dissenting opinion by Justice Maxey” (January 1932).

The circulation of these bulletins was noted as being free to a mailing list of approximately 350 individuals and organizations.

Archived Collections

There doesn’t appear to be a readily accessible online source for a digitized, OCR -processed collection of the bulletin. The Tamiment Library , which houses extensive archives related to the Communist Party of the USA , does not list a singular collection dedicated solely to the IJA’s monthly bulletin. However, mentions and individual issues can be found scattered within numerous other collections of personal papers and photographs.

According to WorldCat, libraries holding full or partial archives of the bulletin include a surprisingly extensive list across various regions:

  • Washington Area: Library of Congress, George Washington University Law Library - Jacob Burns Law Library, University of Virginia - Arthur J. Morris Law Library.
  • Philadelphia Area: University of Pennsylvania Law Library - Biddle Law Library.
  • New York City Area: New York Public Library System, New York University - Elmer Holmes Bobst Library (Tamiment Library), Yale University - Law School Library.
  • New York State: SUNY Binghamton University Libraries (Glenn G. Bartle Library), Cornell University Library, University of Rochester, SUNY at Buffalo, New York State Appellate Division, Law Library (Rochester).
  • North Carolina: Duke University, Law Library (J. Michael Goodson Law Library).
  • Albany: New York State Library.
  • Boston Area: Harvard College Library, Harvard Law School Library.
  • Ohio: Cleveland Public Library (Main Library), Ohio State University - Michael E. Moritz Law Library.
  • Indiana: Indiana University - Jerome Hall Law Library.
  • Iowa: University of Iowa, Law Library.
  • Illinois: University of Chicago Library, Northwestern University, School of Law Library - Pritzker Legal Research Center, Northwestern University (Evanston), DePaul University College of Law - Vincent G. Rinn Law Library, Southern Illinois University, School of Law (Carbondale).
  • Michigan: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Law Library.
  • Minnesota: University of Minnesota, Law Library - Twin Cities Campus.
  • Kansas: University of Kansas Archives - Kenneth Spencer Research Library, Washburn University Law Library (Topeka), Fort Hays State University - Forsyth Library (Hays).
  • Louisiana: Louisiana State University Law Library - Paul M. Hebert Law Center Library.
  • Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma, Law Center Library.
  • Texas: University of Texas at Austin - Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRC).
  • California: Los Angeles County Law Library, University of California, Los Angeles, University of California Berkeley Law Library - Boalt Law Library, University of California Berkeley Law Library - McEnerney Law Library, University of California Berkeley Law Library - BerkeleyLaw Library.
  • Oregon: University of Oregon Libraries - John E. Jaqua Law Library.
  • Washington: University of Washington - Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library.

It appears the IJA’s publication, at least in physical form, is still accessible, albeit requiring a bit of legwork.

See Also