Progressive Codification Research Articles

“Responsibility of States,” at the Hague Codification Conference

Among the three subjects which the Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law considered ripe for codification was the subject of “Responsibility of States for Damage Caused in Their Territory to the Person or Property of Foreigners.” Acting on that assumption, the Committee sent out to the Governments at least three separate documents between 1925 and 1929: first, a Report of its Sub-committee, consisting of Messrs. Guerrero of Salvador, and Wang Chung Hui of China second, a Schedule of Points drawn up by the so-called Preparatory Committee of Experts, a smaller body, and designed to elicit replies from the different governments, presenting their views on different aspects of the general subject; and finally, the Bases of Discussion, consisting of the replies to the Schedule of Points made by some thirty governments, the substance of these replies being then crystallized into propositions called Bases of Discussion, on which The Hague Conference of the governments, called for March 13, 1930, was to conduct its deliberations. Perhaps that Conference was handicapped from the start by the fact that the Guerrero report, which had been circulated, departed materially, in some of its fundamental postulates and premises (representing minority views) from the subsequent Bases of Discussion, which reflected the views of the majority of the replying governments. Of the Latin-American nations, Chile was practically the only country to respond to the Schedule of Points on the Responsibility of States, and then only within the narrowest limits.

The Hague Conference on The Codification of International Law

There is being developed a special technique of codification. The Sixth Pan American Conference at Havana adopted in the form of seven conventions a codification of that number of topics in public international law; namely, on the status of aliens, treaties, diplomatic privileges and immunities, asylum, civil strife, and maritime neutrality. The preparatory work had been done by (a) the American Institute of International Law working through its executive committee, and (b) the Rio Commission of Jurists reestablished by the Fifth Pan American Conference. The proposed world conference upon codification has now been called to meet at The Hague in the spring of this year. There have been no official indications as yet of its postponement because of other international conferences. The machinery created by the League of Nations to perform the work preparatory to this conference has been functioning since 1925. The working of this machinery has already been described in this Jo u rn al down to the creation of the present Preparatory Committee for the Codification Conference. It will be remembered that the Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law, composed of sixteen members, prepared a provisional list of topics suitable for codification by international agreement, made reports upon various topics, submitted questionnaires upon seven of them to the various governments, and selected therefrom three topics as the agenda of the first world conference on codification. This cpmmittee also made one general and two special reports upon the further work of codification, with some indications as to procedure.

Appendix No. 2 Responses of various Governments to Questionnaire No. 4 of the League of Nations Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law

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Appendix No. 1 Conclusions of a sub-committee, communicated to various Governments by the League of Nations Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law, with Questionnaire No. 4, January 29, 1926

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Appendix No. 1. Amended Draft Convention communicated to various Governments by the League of Nations Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law, with Questionnaire No. 2, January 29, 1926

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Appendix No. 6 Draft of a convention communicated to various governments by the League of Nations Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law, with Questionnaire No. 1, January 29, 1926

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Report of the Special Committee for the Progressive Codification of International Law

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Progress of the Work of the League of Nations Codification Committee

With the adoption of a resolution by the Council of the League of Nations, transmitting the report of the Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law to the Assembly, what may be called the preliminary work of that Committee has reached such a stage that it seems possible to review its activities in the process of codification adopted by the League of Nations. It will be remembered that the Hague Commission of Jurists in its report accompanying the Statute of the World Court recommended the creation of agencies for codification, and that Lord Robert Cecil’s opposition to codification delayed acceptance of the Commission’s recommendation until September, 1924, when the Assembly upon the initiative of Sweden provided for the appointment of a committee of experts.

The Gradual and Progressive Codification of International Law

On Monday evening, April 18, 1927, his Excellency Octavio Mangabeira, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, formally opened the International Commission of American Jurists for the Codification of International Law, Public and Private, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the Monroe Palace, in the presence of the official representatives of seventeen of the twenty-one American Republics, having before them, as the bases of their labors,the projects of public and private international law drafted by the American Institute of International Law. On Friday afternoon, May 20, 1927, he formally adjourned the International Commission of American Jurists, which had to its credit twelve projects of public international law, and a code of private international law of no less than 439 articles, which the Commission had, within the short space of five weeks, put into shape primarily from the projects of the American Institute of International Law. It is the purpose of the present article to show how this Commission, the first official body which successfully and consciously endeavored to codify the two branches of international law, accomplished the purpose for which it had been created and assembled.

Letter from the Chairman of the Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International law to the Secretary-General of the league of nations, Communicating to the latter, for Transmission to Governments, the Questionnaires and reports adopted by the committee at its second session held in January 1926

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The Nationality Convention Adopted by the League of Nations Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law

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Letter from the Chairman of the Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law to the Acting President of the Council Upsala, May 11th, 1925.

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The Progressive Codification of International Law

It was inevitable that the end of the World War should be followed by a revival of interest in the systematic development of the law of nations. Such a result was foreseen by W. E. Hall as long ago as 1890, but the extent of the revival and its consequences were pictured by him in terms altogether too sanguine. Many of the people who have expected the experience of the war to be capitalized in an immediate clarification of the laws of war must have been greatly disappointed by the events of the past years. A struggle which aroused so many passions, which divided a large part of the human race into hostile camps, could not possibly have produced the conditions necessary for building a new law which would embody the common views of people in many countries; but perhaps it did serve to direct attention to the lawless character of international relations in certain fields, and thus gave to politicians and lawyers opportunity for extending and improving the law governing such relations. If there has not been a general unanimity of opinion as to the method to be followed and the direction to be taken, the opportunity has not been neglected, and currents are now under way and agencies have been created which promise a continued if not a consistent progress for the future.

First Session of the Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law

First Session of the Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law

Second Session of the Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law

Second Session of the Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law

Report of Special committee on Collaboration with the League of Nations Committee for the Progressive Codification of International Law

Report of Special committee on Collaboration with the League of Nations Committee for the Progressive Codification of International Law

Report of Special Committee on Collaboration with the League of Nations Committee for the Progressive Codification of International Law

Report of Special Committee on Collaboration with the League of Nations Committee for the Progressive Codification of International Law

The Progressive Codification of International Law

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