Elihu Root (1845–1937)

Abstract

Elihu Root was a driving force in early twentieth-century efforts to establish international judicial tribunals, including the Central American Court of Justice in 1907, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in 1907, and the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) in 1920. Root was well-suited to this role since he had achieved eminence as a corporate attorney in Manhattan before serving as an internationalist Secretary of War from 1899 to 1904 and Secretary of State from 1905 to 1909. In both these positions, Root addressed critical legal and diplomatic issues arising from the nation’s emergence as a world power in the wake of the Spanish-American War. After advocating conservative domestic policies as a Republican senator from New York between 1909 and 1915, Root returned to the world stage in 1920, when he served as the influential American representative to the conference in The Hague that wrote the charter for the PCIJ. He resolved the previously intractable issue of judicial selection by proposing a plan by which both chambers of the League of Nations, representing both large and small nations, would select judges from nominations made by PCA judges. Root also successfully proposed that the court have the power to adjudicate disputes rather than merely power to arbitrate and to limit adjudication to nations rather than individuals. The League, however, rejected Root’s proposal to make the court’s decisions binding on its members. Although Root later worked for 15 years to secure American membership in the PCIJ, the Senate ultimately rejected membership in 1935. Root believed that international courts would help to prevent war and would promote the rule of law in international disputes. In his efforts to create such courts, however, Root always advocated incrementalism because he was keenly aware that international courts were dependent upon the political cooperation of their members.