Author: League of Nations

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-07

Total Pages: 26

ISBN-13: 9781330907528

Excerpt from The Permanent Court of International Justice All the work for the organisation of the world has revolved around two different poles, namely, community of interests and conflict of interests. This has tended, on the one hand, to the furtherance of common interests, and, on the other, to the prevention or avoidance of threatened conflicts when the interests of one country ran counter to those of another. The work in the former direction had its effect in the creation of a widespread network of administrative organisations covering all, or as many as possible, of the civilised countries. Such organisations included the Postal and Telegraph Unions, the Agricultural Institute at Rome, International Railway Conventions, the network of treaties concerning patents, copyrights, and trade marks. The work for the avoidance of war crystallised in international agreements for judicial settlement of international disputes, or for impartial investigation and attempts at conciliation. The synthesis of these efforts was constituted by the Conventions for the pacific settlement of international disputes, which were concluded at what are known as the two Peace Conferences held at The Hague in 1899 and 1907. When the war came, it involved among others the two big Anglo-Saxon nations who maintain the legal doctrine that war dissolves international agreements between belligerents; thus, the development of the organisation of the world along administrative lines was interrupted, although the peace treaties tended to bind together the threads uniting the Past with the Future - threads torn asunder by the war; the war itself, especially in view of the events which surrounded its origin, was a challenge to the methods for the avoidance of war which had hitherto been practised, and a denial of the agreements which, in this respect, had been concluded. If, in these circumstances, the efforts of the nations of the world were once more to be united and directed towards a common end, instead of being turned towards conflict of national interests, endeavours would have to be made on fresh lines. The Fundamental Ideas of the League of Nations. Such lines were found in the conception of a League of Nations or States. In this conception there were welded together the ideas of a world organisation for the furtherance of common interests and for the avoidance of conflicts. This was possible because, at the bottom of both was the idea of the interdependence of States. This interdependence, of course, grows as long as peaceful conditions prevail, and the maintenance of Peace is made easier by the existence of interdependence, since interdependence makes Peace a predominant interest to any State: further, interdependence makes it possible to create an efficient system of sanctions for violations of international obligations concerning the maintenance of Peace, a system, however, that can only be applied by an organisation of States that is practically universal, and thus able to control the working of the interdependence. This organisation is the League of Nations, and the sanctions are its economic weapon. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.