A Few Considerations on the Settlement of International Disputes By Means Other Than War

Extract

The success of international arbitrations—between 250 and 260 since 1815—and the present frequency of them, combined with the growing consciousness of the economic waste involved in war and in preparation for war, have projected into the field of practical politics the question of a settlement of international disputes by means other than war. The possibility of avoiding war by entering into treaties of arbitration after the dispute has arisen and after diplomacy has failed to adjust the dispute is no longer relied upon as the sole means of averting a resort to force. Coming into being with the First Hague Conference (1899), the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, which sets up a list of judges from which an arbitration tribunal may be drawn, marked a distinct forward step. Its very existence has not only invited the nations to use arbitration as a means of settling present disputes but has promoted the making of so-called general treaties looking forward to the submission of a certain category of future disputes to arbitration. From May 18, 1899, to March 21, 1910, there were negotiated 133 such treaties. The First Hague Conference likewise set up the Commission of Inquiry, which provides machinery for ascertaining the facts, and in one notable instance at least—the Dogger Bank affair (1904)—has justified its existence.