INTERNATIONAL LAW AND PEACE 5S 



/. The Development of " International Law." 



When the various articles on questions of " International Law " in the nth edition 

 of the Encyclopaedia Britannica were written, the Hague Conventions of 1907 were still 

 fresh and the controversy on the Declaration of London had not yet become a serious 

 obstacle to its ratification. Since then there has been time for the rules therein laid 

 down and codified to undergo careful examination. Leaving the Convention (No. 12) 

 relating to the establishment of an international Prize Court (which has been ratified 

 by none of the parties) out of consideration, the result as regards the Hague Conventions 1 

 has been that Great Britain has ratified all but the ist, relating to the pacific settlement 

 of disputes, the 5th, referring to the rights and duties of neutral states and persons in war 

 on land, the loth, adapting the principles of the Geneva Convention to naval war, and 

 the 1 3th, relating to the rights and duties of neutral Powers in maritime war. The 

 United States, on the other hand, has ratified the ist, the 5th, the loth and the i3th, 

 but not the 6th affecting the status of merchant ships at the outbreak of hostilities or the 

 7th relating to the conversion of merchant intc war ships. The states which have rati- 

 fied none of the Conventions include Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Servia, Greece and Monte- 

 negro. 2 France, Germany and Austria-Hungary have ratified all but the i4th, and Rus- 

 sia all but the nth and i4th. Of the great Powers, only Great Britain and the United 

 States have ratified the i4th, prohibiting projectiles from air ships. 



It is an interesting, though no doubt quite a fortuitous fact, that none of the bellig- 

 erents in contemporary wars (1910-12) have thus far bound themselves to observe any 

 of the Conventions of 1907. Italy, Turkey, Greece, Servia and Montenegro, however, 

 ratified the Conventions of i8gg, 3 and, although there is no specific provision in the Con- 

 vention for the pacific settlement of international disputes, as there is in the 1907 con- 

 ventions, ensuring the observance of the earlier convention pending ratification of the 

 revised versions of 1907, Art. 9 of that of 1907 states that " the present convention, on 

 being duly ratified, shall take the place in the relations between the contracting Powers 

 of the convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes of July 29, 1899." 

 In the case of the other renewed conventions the clause runs: " The convention of 1899 

 remains in force as between the Powers which signed it, which do not ratify also the 

 present convention." Captious critics might ask what force attaches to this clause in 

 an unratified agreement, but it has, at any rate, the value of an uncontested acknowledg- 

 ment by the parties to the conventions of 1899 that the mere signing of modified con- 

 ventions on the same subject is not a denunciation of the existing conventions. 



In spite of the non-ratification of the 1907 conventions by the Parties engaged in the 

 Italo-Turkish and Balkan-Turkish wars, there could be little doubt that they would 



1 The following is a list of the conventions adopted in 1907: 



I. For the pacific settlement of international disputes. 2. Respecting the limitation of 

 the employment of force for the recovery of contract debts. 3. Relative to the commence- 

 ment of hostilities. 4. Concerning the laws and customs of war on land. 5. Respecting the 

 rights and duties of neutral Powers and persons in war on land. 6. Relative to the status 

 of enemy merchant ships at the outbreak of hostilities. 7. Relating to the conversion 

 of merchant ships into war ships. 8. Relative to the laying of automatic submarine con- 

 tact mines. 9. Respecting bombardment by naval forces in time of war. 10. For the 

 adaptation of the principles of the Geneva Convention to maritime war. II. Relative to 

 certain restrictions on the exercise of the right of capture in maritime war. 12. Relative to 

 the establishment of an International Prize Court. 13. Respecting the rights and duties of 

 neutral Powers in maritime war. 14. Prohibiting discharge of projectiles, etc., from balloons. 



2 The others are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, 

 Ecuador, Spain, Luxemburg, Paraguay, Peru, Persia, Uruguay and Venezuela. These and 

 the 5 mentioned make 19 out of the 44 states represented at the Hague in 1907. 



3 The Hague Conventions adopted in 1899 were as follows: 



I. For the pacific settlement of international disputes. 2. Relating to the laws and 

 customs of war by land. 3. For the adaptation to maritime warfare of the Geneva con- 

 vention of 1864. Three declarations on the following matters were also adopted: 

 (a) Prohibition of the launching of projectiles and explosives from balloons, (b) Prohi- 

 bition of the use of projectiles, the only object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating 

 or deleterious gases, (c) Prohibition of the use of expanding bullets. 



