PRESENT AND FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 503 



treaties declaring that in case of a conflict the proper course will be 

 to refer the matter to the judgment of the arbitration court of The 

 Hague. 



It is by reason of these provisions that Denmark and Holland, in 

 their remarkable treaty of February 12, 1904, rendered arbitration 

 as between them compulsory, and recourse to the arbitration court of 

 The Hague possible, whatever the cause of conflicts bringing about 

 disagreements. They took care, besides, to declare that all states 

 may adhere to said convention by means of a simple notice. 



Henceforth it is possible for all states, without a new meeting of 

 the Peace Conference, to bring about a considerable progress in 

 matters of arbitration jurisdiction. Henceforth the road is open to 

 the formation of an arbitration union, and we shall be happy to see 

 here again the United States in the role of giving anew in this case 

 the example of a complete adherence to the principles adopted by 

 Denmark and Holland. 



But, as we think, such a progress is not entirely sufficient. It 

 will be necessary that procedure before the international tribunal 

 be modeled after the procedure before ordinary tribunals. It will be 

 necessary that it be possible to summon, and also to give judgment 

 by default, where a state is in default. No reason in principle is 

 opposed to the introduction of that power in public international 

 law, and no really effective jurisdiction can be conqeived without it. 

 It will also be proper to have the judges who will form the inter- 

 national tribunal irremovable. At the present time the arbitrators 

 are chosen by each of the parties among persons who are devoted in 

 advance to the interests of the party which has appointed them; 

 the odd arbitrator thus becomes the sole judge who decides with 

 either one or the other set of judges. In order to assure their com- 

 plete independence, it may become necessary to completely dena- 

 tionalize the international judges, and to place them in a state of 

 absolute neutrality and incompatibility. 



In order that the international court may be in a position to render 

 decisions with full impartiality, not only must its formation be as- 

 sured and its procedure regulated, but the law which it is to apply 

 must be laid down for it. At the present time the international 

 custom and the provisions of international conventions alone have 

 served to guide the decisions of arbitrators. They, no doubt, will 

 continue to have their guide, but there are general principles of 

 international law which it would be well to formulate in precise 

 texts. The body of these texts should form the international code. 

 Drafts of such a code have already been prepared by eminent 

 jurists, so that this is not a matter of striving after a vain Utopia. 

 The only important question to be faced is that of knowing if such 

 a code will be the work of diplomacy or of a juridical international 



