Holy Alliance Congresses as instruments of establishing international law and order

Abstract

The article describes the progress of the activities of the congresses of the Holy Alliance as a tool for establishing internationallaw and order, their results and significance for the development of international law. The tasks of the Holy Alliance were fulfilledthrough a system of international legal norms adopted at three diplomatic congresses. The first of them took place in the German cityof Aachen. During the congress, a number of regulations were signed, two of which are in the spotlight, because they enshrined theimplementation of the new international law – the protocol and declaration of November 15, 1818. The preamble to the Aachen Protocolidentifies France’s place in the system of international relations and European policy on the basis of the Paris Peace Treaty. Francebecame a full ally of Austria, England, Prussia and Russia. The second task solved at the congress was the fixation of the universal ruleof law, initiated by the Congress of Vienna in 1814–1815. Thus, there was an informal division of states into two groups: the first gua -ranteed the international rule of law, the second – pledged to comply with imperative norms. The significance of the Aachen Congressfor the development of international law lies in the introduction of the practice of adopting special regulations on diplomatic relations.The Second Congress of the Holy Alliance was regarded as two separate ones sometimes, since it was started at Opava, October23, 1820, and continued with a short break in Laibach until the end of April 1822. At that congress, a protocol was signed on the rightof armed intervention in the affairs of other states and the introduction of Austrian occupation troops into the Kingdom of Both Sicilieswas authorized. The Verona Congress discussed the issues of armed intervention in Spain, the recognition of Latin American countries,the fight against slave trade, the freedom of navigation on the Rhine and more.Despite the shakiness of the Alliance, its rather short lifecycle, the form of international communication itself has proved to beeffective and, at times, effective, and has, in fact, been reproduced in the form of the League of Nations and the United Nations. Theexisting provisions have created the basis for further interstate dialogue, expanding the range of international imperative norms andimproving the tools for their elaboration.