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The Charter of the United Nations and the Lodge Reservations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

Leo Gross
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Extract

The prompt adoption of the Charter of the United Nations by the United States stands in bold relief against the failure to ratify, the Covenant of the League of Nations twenty-five years ago. The causes responsible for the success of the Charter and the failure of the Covenant are probably diverse in character and varying in importance. The indorsement of the Charter by a virtually unanimous vote in the Senate was probably due in no small measure to the decision of the Roosevelt Administration to place the issue of American participation in an international security organization, almost from the very beginning, on a non-partisan basis. The issue, however, was not one of joining an international organization of the Woodrow Wilson type. The vote in the Senate, accordingly, does not necessarily represent a belated conversion to the idealism of Wilson. It would seem, on the contrary, that the Roosevelt Administration, drawing on the rich experience of international cöoperation during the interwar period, and more particularly during World War II, had taken care to keep from the Charter all the important matters to which the majority of the Senate, in voting on the Covenant with the Lodge Reservations on March 19, 1920, had taken exception. It may be that this policy was merely part of an over-all strategy aiming at bringing the United States into some sort of international security organization rather than running the risk of a repetition of the 1919/1920 drama. It may be, on the other hand, that the Roosevelt Administration, together with the other sponsoring governments, had become genuinely convinced that the League Covenant represented a type of international organization which, under the prevailing circumstances, was unattainable or undesirable or unworkable in practice.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , July 1947 , pp. 531 - 554
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1947

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References

1 Report to the President on the Results of the San Francisco Conference, Department of State, Publication 2349, Conference Series 71, 1945, p. 24.

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4 See Congressional Record, 79th Congress, First Session, Vol. 91, No. 147, July 23, 1945, p. 8089; but see Senator Fulbright, at p. 8095. The following is the context: “The United States retains every basic attribute of its sovereignty. We cannot be called to participate in any sort of sanctions, military or otherwise, without our own free and untrammeled consent. We cannot be taken into the World Court except at our own free option. The ultimate disposition of enemy territory which we have captured in this war is dependent solely upon our own will so far as this Charter is concerned. Our domestic questions are eliminated from the new organization’s jurisdiction. Our inter-American system and the Monroe Doctrine are unimpaired in their realities. Our right of withdrawal from the new organization is absolute, and is dependent solely upon our own discretion. In a word, Mr. President, the flag stays on the dome of the Capitol.”

5 The text of the reservations will be found in 59 Congressional Record, Part V, March 19, 1920, p. 4599.

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81 Same, p. 36.

82 “Report of Rapporteur of Committee 1 to Commission I,” Doc. 944, I/1/34 (1), p. 8, UNCIO, Documents, Vol. VI, p. 453; “Report of Rapporteur of Commission I to Plenary Session,” Doc. 1179, I/9 (1), p. 1 f, UNCIO, Documents, Vol. VI, p. 245 f; and “Report of Rapporteur of Subcommittee I/1/A to Committee 1/1,” Doc. 723, I/1/A/19, p. 7, UNCIO, Documents, Vol. VI, p. 702.

83 Report of Rapporteur of Subcommittee I/1/A to Committee I/1,” Doc. 723, I/1/A/19, p. 7, UNCIO, Documents, Vol. VI, p. 702.

84 “Report of Rapporteur of Committee 1 to Commission I,” Doc. 944, I/1/34 (1), p. 14, UNCIO, Documents, Vol. VI, p. 459. The delegation of Panama submitted a similar proposal.

85 Same, p. 3; “Report of Rapporteur of Subcommittee I/1/A to Committee I/1,” Doc. 723, I/1/A/19, p. 5, UNCIO, Documents, Vol. VI, p. 700; and Fox, William T. R., “Collective Enforcement of Peace and Security,” 39 American Political Science Review (1945), p. 970.Google Scholar

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89 “Reports and Resolutions on the Subject of Article 16 of the Covenant,” Doc. A.14.1927.V. p. 42.

90 Same, p. 44.

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92 Report Submitted by the Sixth Committee to the Assembly,” Doc. A.74.1938. VII; Engel, work cited, p. 154.

93 Hearings, p. 645.