Permanent Court of International Justice
Encyclopedia
The Permanent Court of International Justice, often called the World Court, was an international court attached to the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

. Created in 1922 (although the idea of an international court was several centuries old), the Court was initially met with a good reaction from states and academics alike, with many cases submitted to it for its first decade of operation. With the heightened international tension of the 1930s the Court was more and more rarely used; by a resolution by the League of Nations on 18 April 1946, the Court ceased to exist.

The Court's mandatory jurisdiction came from three sources; the Optional Clause of the League of Nations, general international conventions and special bipartite international treaties. Cases could also be submitted directly by states, but they were not bound to submit material unless it fell into those three categories. The Court could issue either judgments or advisory opinions; judgments were directly binding, while advisory opinions were not. In practice member states of the League of Nations followed advisory opinions anyway, fearing that to not do so could undermine the moral and legal authority of the Court and League. On occasion the Court was accused of extending its jurisdiction; strictly speaking only allowed to intervene in matters of international law, the Court became involved in municipal law during the Loans Cases.

Founding and early years

An international court had long been proposed; Pierre Dubois
Pierre Dubois
Pierre Dubois , French publicist in the reign of Philip the Fair, was the author of a series of political pamphlets embodying original and daring views....

 suggested it in 1305, and Émeric Crucé
Émeric Crucé
Émeric Crucé was a French political writer, known for the Nouveau Cynée , a pioneer work on international relations.-Life:Little specific is known about him...

 in 1623. The idea of an international court of justice arose in the political world at the First Hague Peace Conference
Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)
The Hague Conventions were two international treaties negotiated at international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands: The First Hague Conference in 1899 and the Second Hague Conference in 1907...

 in 1899, where it was declared that arbitration between states was the easiest solution to disputes, providing a temporary panel of judges to arbitrate in such cases, the Permanent Court of Arbitration
Permanent Court of Arbitration
The Permanent Court of Arbitration , is an international organization based in The Hague in the Netherlands.-History:The court was established in 1899 as one of the acts of the first Hague Peace Conference, which makes it the oldest institution for international dispute resolution.The creation of...

. At the Second Hague Peace Conference in 1907, a draft convention for a permanent Court of Arbitral Justice was written, although disputes and other pressing business at the Conference meant that such a body was never established, owing to difficulties agreeing on a procedure to select the judges. The outbreak of the First World War, and in particular its conclusion, made it clear to many academics that some kind of world court was needed, and it was widely expected that one would be established. Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

, created after the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...

, allowed the League to investigate setting up an international court. In June 1920, an Advisory Committee of jurists appointed by the League of Nations finally established a working guideline for the appointment of judges, and the Committee was then authorised to draft a constitution for a permanent court, not of arbitration (which is non-binding) but of justice. The Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice
Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice
The Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice was an international treaty concluded in Geneva on 13 December 1920 by representatives of 46 states, most of which came from the Allied Powers of the First World War. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on October 8, 1921...

 was accepted in Geneva on December 13, 1920.

The Court first sat on 30 January 1922 at the Peace Palace
Peace Palace
The Peace Palace is a building situated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is often called the seat of international law because it houses the International Court of Justice , the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hague Academy of International Law, and the extensive Peace Palace Library.In addition...

, The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

, covering preliminary business during the first session (such as establishing procedure and appointing officers) Nine judges sat, along with three deputies, since Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante y Sirven
Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante y Sirven
Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante y Sirven was a Cuban lawyer, teacher, author, politician and onetime Judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague ....

, Ruy Barbosa
Ruy Barbosa
Ruy Barbosa de Oliveira was a Brazilian writer, jurist, and politician.Born in Salvador da Bahia, he was a federal representative, senator, Minister of Finance and diplomat. For his distinguished participation in the Hague Peace Conference of 1907, he earned the nickname "Eagle of the Hague"...

 and Chung-Hai Wang were unable to attend, the latter being at the Washington Naval Conference
Washington Naval Conference
The Washington Naval Conference also called the Washington Arms Conference, was a military conference called by President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington from 12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922. Conducted outside the auspices of the League of Nations, it was attended by nine nations...

. The Court elected Bernard Loder as President, and Max Huber as Vice-President; Huber was replaced by Charles Andre Weiss a month later. On 14 February the Court was officially opened, and rules of procedure were established on 24 March, when the court ended its first session. The court first sat to decide cases on 15 June. During its first year of business the Court issued three advisory opinions, all related to the International Labour Organisation created by the Treaty of Versailles, and collectively grouped into the International Labour Organisation Questions.

The initial reaction to the Court was a good one, from politicians, practising lawyers and academics alike. Ernest Pollock
Ernest Pollock, 1st Viscount Hanworth
Ernest Murray Pollock, 1st Viscount Hanworth KBE PC KC was a British Conservative Member of Parliament and Master of the Rolls.He was the MP for Warwick and Leamington from 1910 to 1923...

, the former Attorney General for England and Wales
Attorney General for England and Wales
Her Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales, usually known simply as the Attorney General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown. Along with the subordinate Solicitor General for England and Wales, the Attorney General serves as the chief legal adviser of the Crown and its government in...

 said "May we not as lawyers regard the establishment of an International Court of Justice as an advance in the science that we pursue?", John Henry Wigmore
John Henry Wigmore
John Henry Wigmore was a U.S. jurist and expert in the law of evidence. After teaching law at Keio University in Tokyo , he was the dean of Northwestern Law School...

 said that the creation of the Court "should have given every lawyer a thrill of cosmic vibration", and James Brown Scott
James Brown Scott
James Brown Scott, J.U.D. was an American authority on international law.-Biography:Scott was born at Kincardine, Ontario, Canada. He was educated at Harvard University . As Parker fellow of Harvard he traveled in Europe and studied in Berlin, Heidelberg , and Paris...

 wrote that "the one dream of our ages has been realised in our time". Much praise was heaped upon the appointment of an American judge, despite the fact that the United States had not become a signatory to the Court's protocol, and it was thought that that they would soon do so.

Increasing work and attempted entry of the United States

The Court faced increasing work as it went on, allaying the fears of those commentators who had believed the Court would become like the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

, which was not presented with a case for its first six terms. The Court was given nine cases during 1922 and 1923, however,with judgments called "cases" and advisory opinions called "questions". Three cases were disposed of during the Court's first session, one during an extraordinary sitting between 8 January and 7 February 1923 (the Tunis-Morocco Nationality Question), four during the second ordinary sitting between 15 June 1923 and 15 September 1923 (Eastern Carelia Question, S.S. Wimbledon Case, German Settlers Question, Acquisition of Polish Nationality Question) and one during a second extraordinary session from 12 November to 6 December 1923 (Jaworznia Question). A replacement for Ruy Barbosa
Ruy Barbosa
Ruy Barbosa de Oliveira was a Brazilian writer, jurist, and politician.Born in Salvador da Bahia, he was a federal representative, senator, Minister of Finance and diplomat. For his distinguished participation in the Hague Peace Conference of 1907, he earned the nickname "Eagle of the Hague"...

 (who had died on 1 March 1923 without hearing any cases) was also found, with the election of Epitácio Lindolfo da Silva Pessoa on 10 September 1923. The workload the following year was reduced, containing two judgments and one advisory opinion; the Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions Case, the Interpretation of the Treaty of Neuilly Case (the first case of the Court's Chamber of Summary Procedure) and the Monastery of Saint-Naoum Question. During the same year a new President and Vice-President were elected, since they were mandated to serve for a term of 3 years. At the elections on 4 September 1924, Charles Andre Weiss was again elected Vice-President and Max Huber became the second President of the Court. Judicial pensions were created at the same time, with a judge being given 1/30th of his annual pay for every year he had served once he had both retired and turned 65.

1925 was an exceedingly busy year for the court, which sat for 210 days, with four extraordinary sessions as well as the ordinary session, producing 3 judgments and 4 advisory opinions. The first judgment was given in the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations Case, the second (by the Court of Summary Procedure) was on the interpretation of the Interpretation of the Treaty of Neuilly Case, and the third in the Mavrommatis Jerusalem Concessions Case. The 4 advisory opinions issued by the Court were in the Polish Postal Service in Danzig Question, the Expulsion of the Ecumenical Patriarch Question, the Treaty of Lausanne Question and the German Interests in Polish Upper Silesia Question. 1926 saw reduced business, with only one ordinary session and one extraordinary session; it was, however, the first year that all 11 judges had been present to hear cases. The court heard two cases, providing one judgment and one advisory opinion; a second question on German Interests in Polish Upper Silesia, this time a judgment rather than an advisory opinion, and an advisory opinion on the International Labour Organisation, grouped into the International Labour Organisation Questions.

Despite the drop-off of work in 1926, 1927 was another busy year, the Court sitting continuously from 15 June to 16 December, handing down 4 orders, 4 judgments and 1 advisory opinion. The judgments were in the Belgium-China Case, the Case Concerning the Factory at Chorzow, the Lotus Case and a continuation of the Mavrommatis Jerusalem Concessions Case. 3 of the advisory opinions were on the Competence of the European Commission on the Danube, and the 4th was on the Jurisdiction of Danzig Courts. The 4 orders were on the German Interests in Polish Upper Silesia. This year saw another set of elections; on 6 December, with Dionisio Anzilotti
Dionisio Anzilotti
Dionisio Anzilotti was an Italian jurist and judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice.After law studies in Pisa, Anzilotti taught international law in Florence, Palermo, Bologna and Rome from 1892 to 1937. One of the main proponents of Heinrich Triepel's theory of dualism, his...

 elected President and Charles Andre Weiss elected Vice-President. Weiss died the following year, and John Bassett Moore
John Bassett Moore
John Bassett Moore was an American authority on international law who was a member of the Hague Tribunal and the first US judge to serve on the Permanent Court of International Justice ....

 resigned; Max Huber was elected Vice-President on 12 September 1928 to succeed Weiss, while a second death (Lord Finlay
Robert Finlay, 1st Viscount Finlay
Robert Bannatyne Finlay, 1st Viscount Finlay GCMG, PC, QC,MD was a British lawyer, doctor and politician who became Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.-Background and education:...

) left the Court increasingly understaffed. Replacements for Moore and Finlay were elected on 19 September 1929; Henri Fromageot
Henri Fromageot
Henri Fromageot was a French lawyer and judge. He studied at the University of Paris, University of Oxford and University of Leipzig, gaining a gold medal at Paris in 1891 and serving as the Doctor of Law in the University of Paris Law Faculty. On 19 September 1929 he became a judge of the...

 and Cecil Hurst
Cecil Hurst
Sir Cecil James Barrington Hurst KCB, GCMG, KC was a British lawyer. He worked from 1929 to 1945 as a judge to the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague, serving from 1934 to 1936 as president of the court....

 respectively.

After the second round of elections in September 1930, the Court was reorganised. On 16 January 1931 Mineichirō Adachi
Mineichirō Adachi
was a Japanese legal expert and President of the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague in 1931-1934.-Early life:Adachi was born in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. In 1892, he graduated from the law school of Tokyo University, and began his legal and diplomatic career.-Legal and...

 was appointed President, and Gustavo Guerro Vice-President. The United States finally recognised the Court's jurisdiction in, following a long and drawn out process. Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...

 had first suggested US involvement in 1923, and in 9 December 1929, three court protocols were signed by him. On 10 December 1930, these were presented to the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

, who postponed ratifying it on 16 December 1931 pending the discussion of "pressing domestic business". The United States finally accepted the Court's jurisdiction on 28 December 1935, but the treaty was never ratified, something which Francis Boyle
Francis Boyle
Francis Anthony Boyle is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. Boyle received a A.B. in Political Science from the University of Chicago, then a J.D. degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science from...

 attributes to a strong isolationist element in the US Senate, arguing that the ineffectiveness shown by US non-participation in the Court and other international institutions can be linked to the start of the Second World War.

Growing international tension and dissolution of the court

1933 was a busy year for the court, which cleared its 20th case (and "greatest triumph"); the Eastern Greenland Case. This period was marked by growing international tension, however, with Japan and Germany announcing their withdrawal from the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

, to come into effect in 1935. This did not directly affect the Court, since the protocol accepting Court jurisdiction was separately ratified, but it did influence whether a nation would be willing to bring a case before it, as evidenced by Germany's withdrawal from two pending cases. 1934, the Court's 13th year, "has been in keeping with the traditions associated with that number", with few cases, since the world's governments were more concerned with the growing international tension. The Court's business continued to be small in 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, and 1939, although 1937 was marked by Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...

's acceptance of the Court protocol. The Court's judicial output in 1940 consisted entirely of a set of orders, completed in a meeting between 19 and 26 February, due to an international situation which left the Court with "uncertain prospects for the future". Following the German invasion of the Netherlands, the Court was unable to meet, although the Registrar and President were afforded full diplomatic immunity
Diplomatic immunity
Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments that ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws...

. Informed that this would not be tolerated after diplomatic missions from other nations left The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

 on 16 July, the President and Registrar left the Netherlands and moved to Switzerland, accompanied by their staff.

The Court was unable to meet during 1941, 1942, 1943 or 1944, although the framework remained intact, and it soon became apparent that the Court would be dissolved. In 1943 an international panel met to consider "the question of the Permanent Court of International Justice", meeting from 20 March to 10 February 1944. The panel agreed that the name and functioning of the Court should be preserved, but for some future court rather than a continuation of the current one. Between 21 August and 7 October 1944 the Dumbarton Oaks Conference
Dumbarton Oaks Conference
The Dumbarton Oaks Conference or, more formally, the Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security Organization was an international conference at which the United Nations was formulated and negotiated among international leaders...

 was held, which among other things created an international court attached to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

, to succeed the Permanent Court of International Justice. As a result of these conferences and others, the judges of the Permanent Court of International Justice officially resigned in October 1945, and via a resolution by the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

 on 18 April, the Court ceased to exist, being replaced with the International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...

.

Judges

The Court initially consisted of 11 judges and 4 deputy judges, recommended by member states of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

 to the Secretary General of the League of Nations
Secretary General of the League of Nations
During its existence, the League of Nations had three Secretaries General:#Eric Drummond, 7th Earl of Perth, of the United Kingdom served from 1920 to 3 July 1933.#Joseph Louis Anne Avenol of France served from 3 July 1933 to 31 August 1940....

, who would put them before the Council and Assembly for election. The Council and Assembly were to bear in mind that the elected panel of judges was to represent every major legal tradition in the League, along with "every major civilization". Each member state was allowed to recommend 4 potential judges, with a maximum of 2 from its own nation. Judges were elected by a straight majority vote, held independently in the Council and Assembly. The judges served for a period of nine years, with their term limits all expiring at the same time, necessitating a completely new set of elections. The judges were independent and rid themselves of their nationality for the purposes of hearing cases, owing allegiance to no individual member state, although it was forbidden to have more than one judge from the same state. As a sign of their independence from national ties, judges were given full diplomatic immunity when engaged in Court business The only requirements for a judge were "high moral character" and that they have "the qualifications required in their respective countries [for] the highest judicial offices" or be "jurisconsults of recognized competence in international law".

The first panel was elected on 14 September 1921, with the 4 deputies being elected on the 16th. On the first vote, Rafael Altamira y Crevea
Rafael Altamira y Crevea
Rafael Altamira y Crevea was a Spanish historian and jurist.Born in Alicante, Altamira is considered to be one of the most significant Spanish historians of the 20th century, was a multi-faceted scholar who also took interest in journalism, pedagogy, politics, and literature.In 1898 Altamira,...

 of Spain, Dionisio Anzilotti
Dionisio Anzilotti
Dionisio Anzilotti was an Italian jurist and judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice.After law studies in Pisa, Anzilotti taught international law in Florence, Palermo, Bologna and Rome from 1892 to 1937. One of the main proponents of Heinrich Triepel's theory of dualism, his...

 of Italy, Bernard Loder of the Netherlands, Ruy Barbosa
Ruy Barbosa
Ruy Barbosa de Oliveira was a Brazilian writer, jurist, and politician.Born in Salvador da Bahia, he was a federal representative, senator, Minister of Finance and diplomat. For his distinguished participation in the Hague Peace Conference of 1907, he earned the nickname "Eagle of the Hague"...

 of Brazil, Yorozu Oda
Yorozu Oda
was a Japanese lawyer, academic and judge who served as one of the first Judges of the Permanent Court of International Justice. From 1899 to 1930 he served as a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University, where he was an expert in ancient Chinese law and administrative law...

 of Japan, Charles Andre Weiss of France, Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante y Sirven
Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante y Sirven
Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante y Sirven was a Cuban lawyer, teacher, author, politician and onetime Judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague ....

 of Cuba and Lord Finlay
Robert Finlay, 1st Viscount Finlay
Robert Bannatyne Finlay, 1st Viscount Finlay GCMG, PC, QC,MD was a British lawyer, doctor and politician who became Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.-Background and education:...

 of the United Kingdom were elected by a majority vote of both the Council and Assembly on the first ballot taken. The second ballot elected John Bassett Moore
John Bassett Moore
John Bassett Moore was an American authority on international law who was a member of the Hague Tribunal and the first US judge to serve on the Permanent Court of International Justice ....

 of the United States, and the sixth Didrik Nyholm of Denmark and Max Huber of Switzerland. As the deputy judges, Wang Ch'ung-hui
Wang Ch'ung-hui
Wang, Ch'ung-hui was a prominent Chinese jurist, diplomat and politician who served the Republic of China from its foundation in 1912 until his death in 1958. He was a close associate of the republic's founding father, Dr...

 of China, Demetre Negulesco of Romania and Michaelo Yovanovich of Yugoslavia were elected. The Assembly and Council disagreed on the fourth deputy judge, but Frederik Beichmann of Norway was eventually appointed. Deputy judges were only substitutes for absent judges, and were not afforded a vote in altering court procedure or contributing at other times. As such, they were allowed to act as counsel in international cases where they were not sitting as judges.

In 1930 the number of judges was increased to 15, and a new set of elections were held. The election was held on 25 September 1930, with 14 candidates receiving a majority on the first ballot and a 15th, Francisco José Urrutia
Francisco Jose Urrutia
Francisco José Urrutia Olano was a Colombian diplomat and international jurist. He served as Colombia's Minister of Foreign Affairs first from 1908 to 1909, and again from 1912 to 1914, which during he signed the Thomson–Urrutia Treaty, which re-established diplomatic relations between the United...

, receiving a majority on the second. The full court was Urrutia, Mineichiro Adachi
Mineichirō Adachi
was a Japanese legal expert and President of the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague in 1931-1934.-Early life:Adachi was born in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. In 1892, he graduated from the law school of Tokyo University, and began his legal and diplomatic career.-Legal and...

, Altamira, Anzilotti, Bustamante, Jonkheer van Eysinga, Henri Fromageot
Henri Fromageot
Henri Fromageot was a French lawyer and judge. He studied at the University of Paris, University of Oxford and University of Leipzig, gaining a gold medal at Paris in 1891 and serving as the Doctor of Law in the University of Paris Law Faculty. On 19 September 1929 he became a judge of the...

, José Gustavo Guerrero
José Gustavo Guerrero
José Gustavo Guerrero , was a Salvadoran diplomat and jurist. He served as the last president of the Permanent Court of International Justice from 1937 to 1945; he was also the first president of the International Court of Justice from 1946 to 1949, and remained on the Court as a regular judge...

, Cecil Hurst
Cecil Hurst
Sir Cecil James Barrington Hurst KCB, GCMG, KC was a British lawyer. He worked from 1929 to 1945 as a judge to the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague, serving from 1934 to 1936 as president of the court....

, Edouard Rolin-Jaequemyns, Frank B. Kellogg
Frank B. Kellogg
Frank Billings Kellogg was an American lawyer, politician and statesman who served in the U.S. Senate and as U.S. Secretary of State. He co-authored the Kellogg-Briand Pact, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1929..- Biography :Kellogg was born in Potsdam, New York, and his family...

, Negulesco, Michel Rostworowski, Walther Schücking
Walther Schücking
Walther Adrian Schücking was a German liberal politician, professor of public international law and the first German judge at the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague....

 and Wang Ch'ung-hui
Wang Ch'ung-hui
Wang, Ch'ung-hui was a prominent Chinese jurist, diplomat and politician who served the Republic of China from its foundation in 1912 until his death in 1958. He was a close associate of the republic's founding father, Dr...

.

Judges were paid 15,000 Dutch florins a year, with daily expenses of 50 florins to pay for living expenses, and an additional 45,000 florins for the President, who was required to live at The Hague. Travelling expenses were also provided, and a "duty allowance" of 100 florins was provided when the court was sitting, with 150 for the Vice-President. This duty allowance was limited to 20,000 florins a year for the judges and 30,000 florins for the Vice-President; as such, it provided for 200 days of court hearings, with no allowance provided if the court sat for longer. The deputy judges received no salary, but when called up for service were provided with travel expenses, 50 florins a day for living expenses and 150 florins a day as a duty allowance.

Procedure

Under the Covenant of the League of Nations, all League members agreed that where there was a dispute between states which they "recognize to be suitable for submission to arbitration and which cannot be satisfactorily settled by diplomacy", the matter would be submitted to the Court for arbitration, with suitable disputes being over the interpretation of an international treaty, a question on international law, the validity of facts which, if true, would breach international obligations and the nature of any reparations to be made for breaching international obligations. The original Statutes of the Court provided that all 11 judges were required to sit in every case. There were three exceptions; when reviewing Labour Clauses from a peace treaty such as the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...

 (which was done by a special chamber of 5 judges, appointed every 3 years), when reviewing cases on communications or transport arising from a peace treaty (which used a similar procedure) and when hearing summary procedure cases, which were reviewed by a panel of 3 judges.

To prevent the appearance of any bias in the court's makeup, if there was a judge belonging to one member state on the panel and the other member state was not "represented", they had the ability to select an ad hoc
Ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....

judge of their own nationality to hear the case. In a full court hearing this increased the number to 12; in one of the 5-man chambers, the new judge took the place of 1 of the original 5. This did not apply to summary procedure cases. This ad hoc judge, selected by the member state, was expected to fulfil all the requirements of a normal judge; the President of the Court had ultimate discretion over whether to authorise him to sit. The Court was mandated to open on 15 June each year, and continue until all cases were finished, with extraordinary sessions if required; by 1927, there were more extraordinary sessions than ordinary ones. The Court's business being conducted in English and French as official languages, and hearings were public, unless otherwise specified.

After receiving files in a case calculated to lead to a judgment, the judges would exchange their views informally on the salient legal points of the case, and a time limit for producing a judgment would then be set. Following this, each judge would write an anonymous summary containing his opinion; these would be circulated among the Court for 2 or 3 days before the President drafted a judgment containing a summary of those submitted by individual judges. The Court would then agree on the decision that they wished to reach, along with the main points of argument they wished to use. Once this was done, a Committee of 4, including the President, the Registrar and two judges elected by secret ballot, drafted a final judgment, which was then voted on by the entire Court. Once a final judgment was set, it was given to the public and the press. Every judgment contained the reasons behind the decision and the judges assenting; if there was a dissenting judge, he was allowed to deliver his own judgment, with all judgments read in open court before the agents of the parties to the dispute. Judgments could only be revised based on the discovery of some fact which was unknown when the Court sat, but not if the fact was known but not discussed due to negligence.

The Court also issued "advisory opinions", which arose from Article 14 of the Covenant creating the Court, which provided "The Court may also give an advisory opinion upon any dispute referred to it by the Council or Assembly", which Goodrich interprets as indicating that the drafters intended a purely advisory capacity for the Court, not a binding one. Manley Ottmer Hudson
Manley Ottmer Hudson
Manley Ottmer Hudson was a U.S. lawyer, specializing in public international law. He was a judge at the Permanent Court of International Justice, a member of the International Law Commission, and a mediator in international conflicts. The American Society of International Law named a medal after...

 (who sat as a judge) said that an advisory opinion "was what it purported to be. It is advisory. It is not in any sense a judgement... hence it is not in any way binding on any state", while Charles de Visscher argued that in certain situations, an advisory opinion could be binding on the League of Nations Council and, under certain circumstances, some states; M. Politis agreed, saying that the Court's advisory opinions were equivalent to a binding judgment. In 1927 the Court appointed a committee to look at this issue, and it reported that "where there are in fact contending parties, the difference between contentious cases and advisory cases is only nominal... so the view that advisory opinions are not binding is more theoretical than real". In practice, advisory opinions were usually followed, mostly due to the fear that if this "revolutionary" international court's decisions were not followed, it would undermine its authority. The court did retain the discretion to avoid giving an advisory opinion, and did use this on occasion.

Registrar and Registry

Other than the judges, the Court also included a Registrar and his Secretariat, the Registry. When the Court met for its initial session, opened on 30 January 1922 to allow for the establishment of procedure and the appointment of Court officials, the Secretary-General of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

 passed an emergency resolution through the Assembly which designated an official of the League and his staff as the Registrar and Registry respectively, with the first Registrar being Åke Hammarskjöld. The Registrar, required to reside within The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

, was initially tasked with drawing up a plan to create an efficient Secretariat, using the smallest number of staff possible and costing as little as possible. As a result he decided to have each member of the Secretariat as the head of a particular Department, meaning that the numbers of actual employees could be increased or decreased as necessary without impacting on the actual Registry. In 1927 the post of Deputy-Registrar was created, tasked with dealing with legal research for the Court and answering all diplomatic correspondence received by the Registry. The first Deputy-Registrar was Paul Reugger; after his resignation on 17 August 1928, Julio Lopez Olivan was selected to succeed him. Olivan resigned in 1931 to take over from Hammarskjöld as Registrar, and was replaced by M. L. J. H. Jorstad.

The three principal officers of the Registry, after the Registrar and Deputy-Registrar, were the three Editing Secretaries. The first Editing Secretary, known as the Drafting Secretary, was tasked with drafting the Court's publications (including the Confidential Bulletin, a document exclusively received by judges of the court) and Sections D and E of the official journal, comprising the legislative clauses conferring jurisdiction on the Court and the Court's Annual Report. The second Editing Secretary, known as the Oral Secretary, was mainly responsible for the oral interpretation and translation of the Court's discussions. For public hearings he was assisted by interpreters, but for private meetings only he, the Registrar and the Deputy-Registrar were admitted. As a result of this duty, the Oral Secretary is also tasked with writing Section C of the official journal, which comprises the oral interpretations of Court minutes, along with cases and questions put before the court. The third Secretary, known as the Written Secretary, was tasked with the written translations of the Court's business, which were "both numerous and voluminous". He was assisted in this by the other Secretaries and by translators for languages not his own; all Secretaries were expected to speak English and French fluently, and have working knowledges of German and Spanish.

The Registry was split into several Departments; the Archives, the Accounting and Establishment, the Printing Service and the Copying Department. The Archives included a distribution service for the Court's documents and the legal texts used by the Court itself, and was described as one of the most difficult departments to organise. The Accounting and Establishment Department dealt with the requests for and allocation of the Court's yearly budget, which was drawn up by the Registrar, approved by the Court and submitted to the League of Nations. The Printing Department, run from a single printing plant in Leiden, was created to allow the circulation of the Court's publishings. The Copying Department comprised shorthand, typing and copying services, and included secretaries for the Registrar and judges, emergency reporters capable of taking notes down verbatim and copyists; the smallest of the departments, it comprised between 12 and 40 staff depending on the business of the Court.

Jurisdiction

The Court's jurisdiction was largely optional, but there were some situations in which they had "compulsory jurisdiction", where states were required to refer cases to them. This came from three sources; the Optional Clause of the League of Nations, general international conventions and "special bipartite
Bipartite
Bipartite means having two parts, or an agreement between two parties. More specifically, it may refer to any of the following:-Mathematics:* 2 * bipartite graph* bipartite cubic, a type of cubic function-Medicine:...

 international treaties". The Optional Clause was a clause attached to the protocol establishing the court which required all signatories to refer certain classes of dispute to the court, with compulsory judgments resulting. There were approximately 30 international conventions which the Court had similar jurisdiction under, including the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...

, the Air Navigation Convention, the Treaty of St. Germain and all mandates signed by the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

. It was also foreseen that there would be clauses inserted in bipartite international treaties which would allow the referral of disputes to the ECJ; this indeed occurred, with such provisions found in treaties between Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 and Austria, and between Czechoslovakia and Poland.

Throughout its existence, the Court widened its jurisdiction as much as possible. Strictly speaking, the Court's jurisdiction was only for disputes between states, although despite this they regularly accepted disputes that were between a state and an individual if a second state brought the individual's case to the Court, arguing that in doing this the second state asserts its rights, and the cases therefore becomes one between 2 states. Despite the proviso that the Court was for disputes "which cannot be satisfactorily settled by diplomacy", the Court never required evidence that diplomatic discussions had been attempted before bringing the case. In the Loan Cases it asserted jurisdiction despite the fact that there was no alleged breach of international law, and it could not be shown that there was any international element to the claim. The Court justified this by saying that the Covenant of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

 allowed them jurisdiction in cases over "the existence of any fact which, if established, would constitute a breach of international obligations", arguing that since the fact "may be of any kind" they have jurisdiction if the dispute is one of municipal law. It was long established that municipal law may be considered as a side point to a dispute over international law, but the Loan Cases discussed municipal law without the application of any international points.

See also

  • Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice
    Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice
    The Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice was an international treaty concluded in Geneva on 13 December 1920 by representatives of 46 states, most of which came from the Allied Powers of the First World War. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on October 8, 1921...

  • Commissions of the Danube River
    Commissions of the Danube River
    See Internationalization of the Danube River for events before 1856.The Commissions of the Danube River were authorized by the Treaty of Paris after the close of the Crimean War...


Permanent Court of International Justice cases

External links

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