Volume I Part 7 (1/2)
[Footnote 61: See Martens, N.R.G. 3rd Ser. II. p. 606.]
In 1910 Portugal becomes a Republic; but the Powers, although they enter provisionally into communication with the _de facto_ government, do not recognise the Republic until September 1911, after the National a.s.sembly adopted the republican form of government.
In September 1911 war breaks out between Italy and Turkey, on account of the alleged maltreatment of Italian subjects in Tripoli.
International Law as a body of rules for the international conduct of States makes steady progress during this period. This is evidenced by congresses, conferences, and law-making treaties. Of conferences and congresses must be mentioned the second, third, and fourth Pan-American Congresses,[62] which take place at Mexico in 1901, at Rio in 1906, and at Buenos Ayres in 1910. Although the law-making treaties of these congresses have not found ratification, their importance cannot be denied. Further, in 1906 a conference a.s.sembles in Geneva for the purpose of revising the Geneva Convention of 1864 concerning the wounded in land warfare, and on July 6, 1906, the new Geneva[63] Convention is signed. Of the greatest importance, however, are the second Hague Peace Conference of 1907 and the Naval Conference of London of 1898-9.
[Footnote 62: See Moore, VI. -- 969; Fried, ”Pan-America” (1910); Barrett, ”The Pan-American Union” (1911).]
[Footnote 63: See Martens, N.R.G. 3rd Ser. II. p. 323.]
The second Peace Conference a.s.sembles at the Hague on June 15, 1907.
Whereas at the first there were only 26 States represented, 44 are represented at the second Peace Conference. The result of this Conference is contained in its Final Act,[64] which is signed on October 18, 1907, and embodies no fewer than thirteen law-making Conventions besides a declaration of minor importance. Of these Conventions, 1, 4, and 10 are mere revisions of Conventions agreed upon at the first Peace Conference of 1899, but the others are new and concern:--The employment of force for the recovery of contract debts (2); the commencement of hostilities (3); the rights and duties of neutrals in land warfare (5); the status of enemy merchant-s.h.i.+ps at the outbreak of hostilities (6); the conversion of merchantmen into men-of-war (7); the laying of submarine mines (8); the bombardment by naval forces (9); restrictions of the right of capture in maritime war (11); the establishment of an International Prize Court (12); the rights and duties of neutrals in maritime war (13).
[Footnote 64: See Martens, N.R.G. 3rd Ser. III. p. 323.]
The Naval Conference of London a.s.sembles on December 4, 1908, for the purpose of discussing the possibility of creating a code of prize law without which the International Prize Court, agreed upon at the second Hague Peace Conference, could not be established, and produces the Declaration of London, signed on February 26, 1909. This Declaration contains 71 articles, and settles in nine chapters the law concerning:--(1) Blockade; (2) contraband; (3) un-neutral service; (4) destruction of neutral prizes; (5) transfer to a neutral flag; (6) enemy character; (7) convoy; (8) resistance to search; and (9) compensation.
The Declaration is accompanied by a General Report on its stipulations which is intended to serve as an official commentary.
The movement which began in the last half of the nineteenth century towards the conclusion of international agreements concerning matters of international administration, develops favourably during this period.
The following conventions are the outcome of this movement:--(1) Concerning the preservation of wild animals, birds, and fish in Africa (1900); (2) concerning international hydrographic and biological investigations in the North Sea (1901); (3) concerning protection of birds useful for agriculture (1902); (4) concerning the production of sugar (1902); (5) concerning the White Slave traffic (1904); (6) concerning the establishment of an International Agricultural Inst.i.tute at Rome (1905); (7) concerning unification of the Pharmacopoeial Formulas (1906); (8) concerning the prohibition of the use of white phosphorus (1906); (9) concerning the prohibition of night work for women (1906); (10) concerning the international circulation of motor vehicles (1909).
It is, lastly, of the greatest importance to mention that the so-called peace movement,[65] which aims at the settlement of all international disputes by arbitration or judicial decision of an International Court, gains considerable influence over the Governments and public opinion everywhere since the first Hague Peace Conference. A great number of arbitration treaties are agreed upon, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration established at the Hague gives its first award[66] in a case in 1902 and its ninth in 1911. The influence of these decisions upon the peaceful settlement of international differences generally is enormous, and it may confidently be expected that the third Hague Peace Conference will make arbitration obligatory for some of the matters which do not concern the vital interests, the honour, and the independence of the States. It is a hopeful sign that, whereas most of the existing arbitration treaties exempt conflicts which concern the vital interests, the honour, and the independence, Argentina and Chili in 1902, Denmark and Holland in 1903, Denmark and Italy in 1905, Denmark and Portugal in 1907, Argentina and Italy in 1907, the Central American Republics of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and San Salvador in 1907, Italy and Holland in 1907, entered into general arbitration treaties according to which all differences, without any exception, shall be settled by arbitration.[67]
[Footnote 65: See Fried, ”Handbuch der Friedensbewegung,” 2nd ed., 2 vols. (1911).]
[Footnote 66: See below, -- 476.]
[Footnote 67: The general arbitration treaties concluded in August 1911 by the United States with Great Britain and France have not yet been ratified, as the consent of the American Senate is previously required.]
[Sidenote: Six Lessons of the History of the Law of Nations.]
-- 51. It is the task of history, not only to show how things have grown in the past, but also to extract a moral for the future out of the events of the past. Six morals can be said to be deduced from the history of the development of the Law of Nations:
(1) The first and princ.i.p.al moral is that a Law of Nations can exist only if there be an equilibrium, a balance of power, between the members of the Family of Nations. If the Powers cannot keep one another in check, no rules of law will have any force, since an over-powerful State will naturally try to act according to discretion and disobey the law.
As there is not and never can be a central political authority above the Sovereign States that could enforce the rules of the Law of Nations, a balance of power must prevent any member of the Family of Nations from becoming omnipotent. The history of the times of Louis XIV. and Napoleon I. shows clearly the soundness of this principle.[68]
[Footnote 68: Attention ought to be drawn to the fact that, although the necessity of a balance of power is generally recognised, there are some writers of great authority who vigorously oppose this principle, as, for instance, Bulmerincq, ”Praxis, Theorie und Codification des Volkerrechts” (1874), pp. 40-50. On the principle itself see Donnadieu, ”Essai sur la Theorie de l'equilibre” (1900), and Dupuis, ”Le Principe d'equilibre et de Concert Europeen” (1909).]
(2) The second moral is that International Law can develop progressively only when international politics, especially intervention, are made on the basis of real State interests. Dynastic wars belong to the past, as do interventions in favour of legitimacy. It is neither to be feared, nor to be hoped, that they should occur again in the future. But if they did, they would hamper the development of the Law of Nations in the future as they have done in the past.
(3) The third moral is that the principle of nationality is of such force that it is fruitless to try to stop its victory. Wherever a community of many millions of individuals, who are bound together by the same blood, language, and interests, become so powerful that they think it necessary to have a State of their own, in which they can live according to their own ideals and can build up a national civilisation, they will certainly get that State sooner or later. What international politics can, and should, do is to enforce the rule that minorities of individuals of another race shall not be outside the law, but shall be treated on equal terms with the majority. States embracing a population of several nationalities can exist and will always exist, as many examples show.
(4) The fourth moral is that every progress in the development of International Law wants due time to ripen. Although one must hope that the time will come when war will entirely disappear, there is no possibility of seeing this hope realised in our time. The first necessities of an eternal peace are that the surface of the earth should be shared between States of the same standard of civilisation, and that the moral ideas of the governing cla.s.ses in all the States of the world should undergo such an alteration and progressive development as would create the conviction that arbitral awards and decisions of courts of justice are alone adequate means for the settlement of international differences. Eternal peace is an ideal, and in the very term ”ideal” is involved the conviction of the impossibility of its realisation in the present, although it is a duty to aim constantly at such realisation.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, now established by the Hague Peace Conference of 1899, is an inst.i.tution that can bring us nearer to such realisation than ever could have been hoped. And codification of parts of the Law of Nations, following the codification of the rules regarding land warfare and the codification comprised in the Declaration of London, will in due time arrive, and will make the legal basis of international intercourse firmer, broader, and more manifest than before.[69]
[Footnote 69: See Oppenheim, ”Die Zukunft des Volkerrechts” (1911) where some progressive steps are discussed which the future may realise.]
(5) The fifth moral is that the progress of International Law depends to a great extent upon whether the legal school of International Jurists prevails over the diplomatic school.[70] The legal school desires International Law to develop more or less on the lines of Munic.i.p.al Law, aiming at the codification of firm, decisive, and unequivocal rules of International Law, and working for the establishment of international Courts for the purpose of the administration of international justice.
The diplomatic school, on the other hand, considers International Law to be, and prefers it to remain, rather a body of elastic principles than of firm and precise rules. The diplomatic school opposes the establishment of international Courts because it considers diplomatic settlement of international disputes, and failing this arbitration, preferable to international administration of justice by international Courts composed of permanently appointed judges. There is, however, no doubt that international Courts are urgently needed, and that the rules of International Law require now such an authoritative interpretation and administration as only an international Court can supply.