80 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in the Peace of Westphalia, increasingly practiced since then, and 

 at the instance of Lincoln embodied in a manual, has now led to 

 the adoption of a common international code for the conduct of 

 future armies in the field — a result which marks the triumph in 

 our day of the conception of civilized warfare tempered with mercy 

 over the old idea of indiscriminate and inhuman slaughter. 



The Sphere of Arbitration.- — A matter that has given rise to 

 much speculation is the jurisdiction of arbitral tribunals. It has 

 come to be recognized that a distinction must be made between 

 different classes of international disputes. "What may be called 

 " business disputes " between states, such, as boundary lines, tariffs, 

 damages, fishery claims, questions of citizenhip, and various treaty 

 arrangements — like the most-favored nation clause — are all fit sub- 

 jects for arbitration.* But the graver questions involving the con- 

 sideration of national policy and aspirations, vital interests and 

 honor, race and religious prejudices and passions, and last of all 

 self-preservation, are, at least for the present, far beyond the com- 

 petence of an arbitration tribunal. f 



If the list of arbitral decisions hitherto given be examined it 

 will show that questions of the first sort above are those which 

 have thus far been submitted to judicial settlement.;}: It is there- 

 fore in harmony with past experience that the conference, in gen- 

 erally defining the scope of arbitration, declared it to be intended 

 for the settlement of " questions of a juridical nature," especially 

 the interpretation and application of international agreements upon 

 the basis of respect for law.* The frequency of these " business 

 questions " is on the increase ; they seriously embarrass diplomatic 

 representatives, whose proper duty is the conduct of graver matters 

 of policy, and there is a growing disposition to submit them to legal 

 settlement. Under these circumstances, there is little doubt that 



* See Essai sur l'Organisation de 1' Arbitrage International, by M. Descamps, p. 24. 



f The Transvaal War pertinently illustrates the prevailing want of knowledge regarding 

 the true sphere of arbitration. Ever since the outbreak of war the Continental press and 

 some American papers have been asking why the provisions of the Peace Conference are 

 not put in operation. Much of this is due to anglophobia; much to a genuine ignorance of 

 the matter. The treatment of the subject usually takes the form of an antithesis in which 

 Great Britain as a peace power at the conference is contrasted with Greater Britain making 

 war on a little republic, and this is invariably followed with a statement or inference that 

 the Peace Conference was a huge farce, and the Permanent Court a dire failure. It is now 

 quite plain that the root of the difficulty between England and the Transvaal was not the 

 franchise nor the dynamite monopoly, but English versus Dutch predominancy in the whole 

 of South Africa, and therefore a grave clash of two opposing policies, involving the deepest 

 questions of interest and even self-preservation. Regarding these questions the confer- 

 ence was unanimous in the opinion that they are entirely outside the sphere of arbitrable 

 question. 



X See especially the list given in the back of Darby's International Tribunals, p. 286. 



* See Article XV of the Convention. 



