What of the World Court?
WHAT OF THE WORLD COURT? SHALL the people of the United States love, honor, and obey the World Court as established by the League of Nations? The question is no longer nice and academic. In all...
...Joining the World Court...
...By the very impact of our desire to use the Court independently of the League, we sever the two, weaken the sanctioning power, and help to undo the work which was expected of the new judiciary...
...And the first point which rivets one's attention, apart from the vague, immemorial yearning for some judiciary that might settle disputes between nations, is the fact that modern statesmen have set up two world tribunals—the Hague Court of Arbitration, and the Permanent Court of International Justice...
...The conference resolved to appoint a commission of jurists to consider the subject...
...Therefore, it is salutary to turn, in the midst of the contemporary discussion, to a book as able as The World Court, by the distinguished Latin-American jurist, Antonio S. de Bustamante...
...But unless we are willing to accept at least the moral power of Geneva as a salutary and abiding influence upon the conduct of international affairs, it is hard to see why we are flirting so desperately with the Court...
...But there are many reasons why it should be most earnestly considered and, if possible, made to become a reality...
...But here, as everywhere, having and eating one's cake cannot be simultaneous...
...and as soon as you separate the two, you go back to the old Hague Tribunal and the status of international arbitration before 1918...
...People who insist that the two organizations are not connected seem to seek shelter behind a somewhat awkward logic: clearly, if the Court as organized has any sanction at all, that sanction is the League...
...For the first time in human history, therefore, a potentially strong public opinion is invited to enforce the peaceful settlement of international controversies...
...The unforgettable object of all present effort is the prevention of war...
...We may join it if we care to do so, but the contemporary policy of trying to cooperate with it through a stone wall is ridiculous and futile...
...Obviously not, because it is in substance an attempt to revert to the Hague Tribunal in everything excepting name...
...If this new judiciary is really a better judiciary, then we are doing the world a gross injustice by attempting to revamp it according to our reactionary specifications...
...To the first of these we have adhered rather uneventfully for a number of years...
...Then at some later date we should, perhaps, find a more open and agreeable road toward copartnership with Europe in the enforcement of international covenants...
...But the concluding stages of the debate have revealed the rather surprising fact that this alleged advance toward the establishment of international peace is> urged by those who have dodged with dexterous diligence the labels of pacifism—by a conservative and careful majority against the "radical" minority...
...The idea of a world court is bound up with the concept of international law—a venerable old thought cherished by the peoples of antiquity, by the Christendom of the middle-ages, and by a variety of modern jurists...
...we tear asunder what intention had joined together...
...Such a program may or may not be unwise...
...Since all, or almost all the nations and their colonies and self-governing dominions now form one social organism for certain joint purposes, this organism, which must have force and authority, might well assume the duty of enforcing the judgments of the Permanent Court of International Justice, in case the defeated nation resists the decision...
...By cooperating with our American neighbors in the creation and development of a tribunal such as the one proposed, we could enter freely and fearlessly upon a course that might be of inestimable service to peace...
...and a report will be made at the next session, to be held in Havana during 1926...
...Now the reservations insisted upon by Congress, and by the people of the United States generally, tend to destroy the connection between the two international organizations...
...If the force which supports the Court is public opinion as voiced by the League, then we must be willing to accept that opinion at its face value...
...The judges have greater security and more scope for notable action...
...It would seem, then, that the important matter for us to settle now is this: Does the Permanent Court mean an advance upon the Hague Court...
...And, as a matter of fact, there is practically no limit to the number or the nature of problems which the League can turn over to the new judiciary...
...Is that helping the World Court...
...The process bears all the ear-marks of cautiously agreeing to cash a stranger's check which is without a figure...
...nor is the firmness with which decisions are upheld anything else, at least in theory, than what the League considers practicable and appropriate firmness...
...Those who read M. de Bustamante's analysis without prejudice are likely to concede that the new court is superior in organization, method, and sanctions to anything which has antedated it...
...It is the League which can make the Court powerful, by agreeing to abide by decisions rendered, and by submitting—or causing to be submitted—disputes for authoritative arbitration...
...If it is not guaranteed to do very much, at least it is insured against undoing a great deal...
...Now it would seem from de Bustamante's discussion of the subject that a line of conduct much less questionable is open to the United States...
...In what way is the Permanent Court an improvement worth discussing unless by reason of the support it can get...
...The program of the fifth Pan-American conference, held in Santiago, Chile, during 1923, listed the following topic: "The consideration of the best methods for extending the application of the principle of judicial or arbitral settlement of disputes between the republics on the continent of America...
...There is a third possibility,1' he says, commenting upon the sanctions of the World Court, "and the current is turning in this direction...
...History proves that the men who assembled at Versailles hoped to establish just this relationship between the two institutions...
...First of all, the League is the international desti ly of Europe...
...The point is not under discussion here...
...It is high time an effort were made to capitalize the moral of this comparison...
...Is it likely to achieve more in codifying and applying international law...
...Would the adherence of the United States to the World Court of the League promote this object...
...Meanwhile, such power as we have to aid the cause of amity among nations and the development of communal law is being recklessly squandered...
...In all probability, the Senate will reply in the affirmative during the next few weeks...
...Reservations in steadily growing number have done all that is humanly possible to render the venture fool-proof...
...Such flirtation, if honest, means only that we expect nothing beyond what might just as well be achieved by the older methods...
...Whatever reservations statesmen have made in giving it their support, the ideal has never been lost sight of, and, when it has appeared to be in jeopardy, pronouncements on the part of speakers entitled to be listened to, have restored it to its fitting prominence...
...A delegate from Costa Rica submitted, in fact, a plan for such a court, based upon the previous experience of Central American peoples...
...This idea has been strongly opposed, particularly by those who sponsor closer association between the Americas and Europe...
...and that the Coolidge-Harding-Hughes World Court is a sham behind which a nation, unwilling to risk the burden of new international responsibility, is taking cover...
...Details of court procedure have been outlined by men skilled in the art...
...Would cooperation between American republics help to attain it...
...We are now invited to join the second...
...Most assuredly...
...We declare for the one, provided we are clearly understood to be declaring against the other...
...But vastly more important is the sanction conceded to the new court—the support of public opinion made concrete in an association of peoples having certain common interests and laws...
...We do not know...
...The novelty and importance of this fact are stressed by de Bustamante...
...Have they also made it innocuous...
...Accordingly, the average citizen is convinced that the measure is safe rather than startling...
...That is to say, unless the present effort is being made as part of a resolute program to slip the United States very gradually into the League—as gradually as the entrenched opinion of the voting population will admit...
...Stuffing peace down obstreperous throats is, after all, a humane idea...
Vol. 3 • January 1926 • No. 11
