Part 12 (1/2)

”The Members of the League ”In accordance with paragraph agree, further, that they will 3 of Article 16 of the mutually support one another Covenant the signatory States in the financial and economic give a joint and several measures which are taken undertaking to come to the under this Article, in order to a.s.sistance of the State attacked minimize the loss and or threatened, and to give each inconvenience resulting from the other mutual support by means above measures, and that they of facilities and reciprocal will mutually support one exchanges as regards the another in resisting any special provision of raw materials and measures aimed at one of their supplies of every kind, openings number by the Covenant-breaking of credits, transport and transit, State, and that they and for this purpose to take all will take the necessary steps to measures in their power to afford pa.s.sage through their preserve the safety of territory to the forces of any communications by land and by sea of the Members of the League of the attacked or threatened which are co-operating to State.”

protect the covenants of the League.”

There are certain other provisions of the Protocol regarding sanctions which should be mentioned at least for the sake of completeness.

It is the Council[10] which declares that sanctions are at an end and that ”normal conditions be re-established” (Article 14).

To the ”extreme limit of its capacity,” all costs of an aggression are to be borne by the aggressor (Article 15). The language concerning the extent of the liability involved is very sweeping, going much farther than the categories of damage mentioned in Annex I of the Reparation clauses of the Treaty of Versailles.

{81}

The plans to be drawn up by the council for the detailed application of the economic and financial sanctions are to be ”communicated” to the Signatories--in other words, they are advisory, not binding (Article 12).

Here it should be said that the final words of this Article 12 mention ”the Members of the League and the other signatory States.” These words imply the possibility of States signatory to the Protocol which are non-Members of the League. As pointed out above,[11] no such possibility exists, in my opinion. Even if such a theoretic possibility existed, it would be absurd to suppose that any State would sign the Protocol, with obligations going beyond those of the Covenant, while still being outside the privileges of the Covenant; however, the question is of no special importance here.

The main sanctions of the Protocol, _as among the Parties to the Protocol_, may be thus summed up: a war of aggression is an international crime; a Signatory which either avows itself an aggressor or refuses an armistice after hostilities have broken out, commits this crime; and accordingly the other Signatories, upon the call of the Council, unite in the defence of the Signatory which is not the aggressor, according to their respective capacities; which means that if and to the extent that they are able to do so, they contribute by force to the defence against the aggression, as well as by economic and financial measures.

But in view of the other agreements of the Protocol regarding pacific settlement of disputes and its covenants against war, the chief sanctions of the Protocol would never come into play against a Signatory, unless that State finally decided to defy the public opinion of the world and to make into a sc.r.a.p of paper its own solemn written pledge.

[1] Annex C, p. 156 at p. 196.

[2] If there were two parties to the conflict, either one or both might be aggressor. See Article 11 of the Protocol.

[3] I think this means upon _all_ the Signatories. The system of the Protocol is flexible as to the _extent_ to which the Sanctions are to be applied by a particular signatory; but all Signatories come under the same legal obligation.

[4] On October 4, 1921. Official Journal, October, 1921, Special Supplement No. 6, p. 24.

[5] See League of Nations Official Journal, October, 1921, Special Supplement No. 6, pp. 14-15, 24-26, also October, 1924, Special Supplement No. 21, p. 9.

[6] Except as to the possibilities of Article 10 of the Covenant, as to which see _infra_, p. 84, _et seq._

[7] The debates in the Third Committee of the Fifth a.s.sembly are of interest in this regard.

[8] The French is ”engagements.”

[9] Annex C, p. 156 at p. 197, _et seq._

[10] by unanimous vote.

[11] p. 10, _et seq._

{82}

CHAPTER XIII.