XIII. The difficulty caused by the fact that International Statutes cannot be created by a majority vote of the States. The difference between universal and general International XIV. The difficulty created by the fact that there are as yet no universally recognised rules concerning interpretation and construction of International Statutes and ordinary Con- Appendix: Correspondence with the Foreign Office re- specting the Interpretation of Article 23 (h) of the Hague Regulations concerning Land Warfare I. Administration of Justice within the League is a question. of International Courts, but it is incorrect to assert that Inter- national Legislation necessitates the existence of International V. The difficulties connected with the setting up and manning of International Courts of Justice . VI. Details of a scheme which recommends itself because it distinguishes between the Court as a whole and the several Benches which would be called upon to decide the cases VII. The advantages of the recommended scheme IX. A necessary provision with regard to the notorious X. The two starting points for a satisfactory proposal concerning International Mediation by International Councils of Conciliation. Article 8 of the Hague Convention con- cerning Pacific Settlement of International Disputes. The XI. Details of a scheme which recommends itself for the XIII. The assertion that States renounce their sovereignty XIV. Conclusion: Can it be expected that, in case of a great conflict of interests, all the members of the League will 1 UNIV. OF SYNOPSIS I. The purpose of the three Lectures is to draw attention to the links which connect the proposed League of Nations with the past, to the difficulties involved in the proposal, and to the way in which they can be overcome. II. The conception of a League of Nations is not new, but is as old as International Law, because any kind of International Law and some kind of a League of Nations are interdependent and correlative. III. During antiquity no International Law in the modern sense of the term was possible, because the common interests which could force a number of independent States into a community of States were lacking. IV. But during the second part of the Middle Ages matters began to change. During the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries an International Law, and with it a kind of League of Nations, became a necessity and therefore grew by custom. At the same time arose the first schemes for a League of Nations guaranteeing permanent peace, namely those of Pierre Dubois (1305), Antoine Marini (1461), Sully (1603), and Emeric Crucée (1623). Hugo Grotius' immortal work on The Law of War and Peace' (1625). V. The League of Nations thus evolved by custom could not undertake to prevent wars; the conditions prevailing up to the outbreak of the French Revolution made it impossible; it was only during the nineteenth century that the principle of nationality made growth. VI. The outbreak of the present World War is epoch-making because it is at bottom a fight between the principle of democratic and constitutional government and the principle of militarism and autocratic government. The three new points in the present demand for a League of Nations. VII. How and why the peremptory demand for a new League of Nations arose, and its connection with so-called Internationalism. |