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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

George H. Aldrich  and
Christine M. Chinkin
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Extract

On May 18, 1899, die first Hague Peace Conference was convened in the House in the Woods provided by the Dutch royal family. It was attended by invitation by representatives of twenty-six of the fifty-nine governments that then claimed sovereignty. The hundred delegates included diplomats, statesmen (no stateswomen!), publicists, lawyers, and technical and scientific experts. Unlike earlier peace conferences, which were convened to terminate ongoing armed conflicts, the Hague Conference met in peacetime for the purpose of making law. The conference was called at the initiative of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia with the intentions principally to seek agreements to limit armaments and their consequent financial burdens, and secondarily to improve the prospects for the peaceful setdement of international disputes and to codify the laws of war. Doubtiess, the tsar’s initiative was inspired in part by his grandfather’s earlier success in obtaining the St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868, which prohibited, for humanitarian reasons, the use of explosive projectiles weighing less than four hundred grams. In any event, the Hague Peace Conference pursued a much broader agenda than the meetings at St. Petersburg and was able to draw upon certain preparatory work on the laws of war, including the Geneva Convention on the Amelioration of the Conditions of the Wounded in Armies in the Field of 1864, the draft Project of an International Declaration concerning the Laws and Customs of War produced by the Brussels Conference of 1874, and the Oxford Manual on the laws of war of 1880, which had been adopted unanimously by the Institute of International Law.

Type
Symposium: The Hague Peace Conferences
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 94 , Issue 1 , January 2000 , pp. 1 - 3
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2000

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References

1 See The Final Act of the Peace Conference of 1899, July 29, 1899, 2 James Brown Scott, The Hague Peace Conferences 1899 and 1907, at 61 (1909) [hereinafter 1899 Final Act], reprinted in The Laws of Armed Conflicts 49 (Dietrich Schindler & Jiří Toman eds., 3d rev. ed. 1988).

2 Declaration Renouncing the Use, in Time of War, of Explosive Projectiles under 400 Grammes Weight, Nov. 29, 1868 (Dec. 11), 18 Martens Nouveau Recueil (le sér.) 474, translated and reprinted in The Laws of Armed Conflicts, supra note 1, at 101.

3 Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, Aug. 22, 1864, 18 Martens Nouveau Recueil (le sér.) 612, translated and reprinted in The Laws of Armed Conflicts, supranote 1, at 279.

4 Project of an International Declaration concerning the Laws and Customs of War, Aug. 27, 1874, 65 Brit. & Foreign St. Papers 1005 (1873–74), reprinted in The Laws of Armed Conflicts, supra note 1, at 25.

5 The Laws of War on Land, Sept. 9, 1880, 5 Institut de Droit International, Annuaire 156 (1881–82), translated and reprinted in The Laws of Armed Conflicts, supra note 1, at 35.

6 Convention [No. I] Regarding the Pacific Setdement of International Disputes, July 29,1899, 32 Stat. 1779, 1 Bevans 230.

7 Convention [No. II] with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land, with annex of regulations, July 29, 1899, 32 Stat. 1803, 1 Bevans 247.

8 Convention [No. III] for the Adaptation to Maritime Warfare of the Principles of the Geneva Convention of 22 August 1864, July 29, 1899, 32 Stat.1827, 1 Bevans 263.

9 Declaration [No. IV, 1] to Prohibit for the Term of Five Years the Launching of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons, and Other Methods of a Similar Naturejuly 29, 1899, 32 Stat. 1839, 1 Bevans 270.

10 Declaration [No.IV, 2] concerning Asphyxiating Gases, July 29, 1899, Texts of the Peace Conferences at The Hague, 1899 and 1907, at 81 (James Brown Scott ed., 1908) [hereinafter Hague Conference Texts], reprinted in The Laws of Armed Conflicts, supra note 1, at 105.

11 Declaration [No. IV, 3] concerning Expanding Bullets, July 29,1899, Hague Conference Texts, supra note 10, at 83, reprinted in The Laws of Armed Conflicts, supranote 1, at 109.

12 See the references to the issues that it was hoped would be addressed in a future conference in the 1899 Final Act, supra note 1, at 79.

13 See The Final Act of the Peace Conference of 1907, Oct. 18, 1907, 2 SCOTT, supra note 1, at 256 [hereinafter 1907 Final Act], reprinted in The Laws of Armed Conflicts, supra note 1, at 53.

14 Convention [No. II] Relating to the Limitation of the Employment of Force for the Recovery of Contract Debts, Oct. 18,1907, 36 Stat. 2241, 1 Bevans 607.

15 Convention [No. Ill] Relative to the Opening of Hostilities, Oct. 18, 1907, 36 Stat. 2259, 1 Bevans 619.

16 Convention [No. V] Respecting the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in Case of War on Land, Oct. 18, 1907, 36 Stat. 2310, 1 Bevans 654; Convention [No. XIII] concerning the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Naval War, Oct. 18, 1907, 36 Stat. 2415, 1 Bevans 723.

17 Convention [No. VI] Relating to the Status of Enemy Merchant Ships at the Outbreak of Hostilities, Oct. 18, 1907,100 Brit. & Foreign St. Papers 365 (1906–07), reprinted in The Laws of Armed Conflicts, supra note 1, at 791; Convention [No. VII] Relating to the Conversion of Merchant Ships into War-ships, Oct. 18, 1907, 100 Brit. & Foreign St. Papers 377 (1906–07), reprinted in The Laws of Armed Conflicts, supra note 1, at 797; Convention [No. VIII] Relative to the Laying of Automatic Submarine Contact Mines, Oct. 18, 1907, 36 Stat. 2332, 1 Bevans 669; Convention [No. IX] concerning Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War, Oct. 18, 1907, 36 Stat. 2351, 1 Bevans 681; Convention [No. XI] Relative to Certain Restrictions with Regard to the Exercise of the Right of Capture in Naval War, Oct. 18, 1907, 36 Stat. 2396, 1 Bevans 711; Convention [No. XII] Relative to the Creation of an International Prize Court, Oct. 18, 1907, 100 Brit. & Foreign St. Papers 435 (1906–07), reprinted in The Laws of Armed Conflicts, supra note 1, at 825.

18 Declaration [No. XIV] Prohibiting the Discharge of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons, Oct. 18, 1907, 36 Stat. 2439, 1 Bevans 739.

19 1907 Final Act, supra note 13, at 289.