In this paper, we introduce a new algebraic notion, weakly symmetric Lie algebras, to give an algebraic description of an interesting class of homogeneous Riemann--Finsler spaces, weakly symmetric Finsler spaces. Using this new definition, we are able to give a classification of weakly symmetric Finsler spaces with dimensions $2$ and $3$. Finally, we show that all the non-Riemannian reversible weakly symmetric Finsler spaces we find are non-Berwaldian and with vanishing S-curvature. This means that reversible non-Berwaldian Finsler spaces with vanishing S-curvature may exist at large. Hence the generalized volume comparison theorems due to Z. Shen are valid for a rather large class of Finsler spaces.

We establish a second order smooth variational principle valid for functions defined on (possibly infinite-dimensional) Riemannian manifolds which are uniformly locally convex and have a strictly positive injectivity radius and bounded sectional curvature.