The International Union Of The Hague Conferences (Paperback)

Carnegie i eace DIVISION OP INTENTIONAL LAW James Brown Scott, Director THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF THE HAGUE CONFERENCES BY WALTHEE PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MARBURG ASSOCIATE OF THE INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY CHARLES G. FENWICK, PH. D. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE BRYN MAWR COLLEGE OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS London, Edinburgh, New York, Toronto, Melbourne and Bombay HUMPHREY MILFORD 1918 PRINTED IN ENGLAND AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PBESS INTEODUCTOEY BY tsr tlie spring of 1912 there was issued, in the German language, a book entitled Der Staatenverband der Haager Konferenzen, or, as it may be rendered in English, The Union created by the Hague Conferences. This work is the first of a series of volumes under the general title Das Werk vom Haag, or The Work of The Hague, published by Messrs. Duncker and Humblot of Munich and Leipzig, and due to the enterprise and devotion of Dr. Walther Schiicking, professor in the University of Marburg, Germany. The series, as a whole, was intended to make known the results of the First and Second Hague Conferences by publishing monographs dealing with the declarations, conventions, and recommendations, as well as the problems of the Conferences, so that the students and scholars of Germany might be furnished with all information essential to a correct under standing of the Conferences. In the conduct of this enterprise Professor Schiicking has secured the co-operation of the following well-known publicists von Bar, Pleischmann, Kohler, Lammasch, von Liszt, Meurer, Niemeyer, Nippold, von Ullmann, and Wehberg. Thus far two volumes of the series have been issued, viz., the volume by Professor Schiickingreferred to above, and one by Dr. Hans Wehberg, entitled Das Problem eines internationalen Staatengerichtshofes, or The Problem of an International Court of Justice. A third work in three volumes, entitled Judicial Decisions of the Permanent Court at The Hague, is in process of publication, being a careful and accurate account of the cases which have been tried PBEFACE IN studying the problem of obligatory arbitration the author became impressed with the conviction of the extent to which the proper solution of a separate problem of that kind is at the present day dependent upon the fact that a clear idea shall first have been obtained of the direction which the Hague work as a whole has given to the develop ment of international law. Neither the diplomats of the Hague Conferences nor the specialists in the theory of international law have thus far studied in detail this cardinal question. As a result of his investigation of this problem the author arrived at wholly new conclusions. But this fact has not troubled him. He who brings new ideas to light must in the nature of things stand at first alone. And this isolation will, in Germany, be all the greater in an age such as ours The view which Nietzsche was the first to present strikingly, that the period of German unity and economic impetus must be followed by an unfortunate setback in the intel lectual life of Germany, is admitted as just by many persons at the present day. The voluntary barriers which a de cadent age has set for itself in respect to its ideas and its ideals must also have a fatal influence upon the German science of international law. But already the spring winds of a new age are blowing abroad, and those who hold tothe c ideas of 1875 are everywhere being forced to defend their position. Thus it has now become possible to obtain recognition for new standards in international law as well. x PREFACE It Is true that the unfortunate political events of the past year have called forth in me serious doubts as to my individual attitude with respect to the value of the work of The Hague doubts which to some extent persist down to the present day...