The League of Nations between Scientific Knowledge and Political Dependence

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-202
Author(s):  
Dimitar Tyulekov ◽  
Ilko Drenkov ◽  
Jani Nikolla
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Border Dispute ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Post War

The League of Nations sets strict professional frameworks that are subordinate to scientific knowledge and international law and respect, without any differences between small and big powers. The first chairman, Eric Drummond, who headed up to 1934, established a huge international prestige of the organization and achieved a number of successes in peace building. The League’s policy in the Balkans is revealed mainly through its relations with Albania and Bulgaria, which both joined the League in December 1920. The two countries rely on the international organization for the peaceful resolution of their political, minority and social problems. Under the supervision of the League of Nations, a number of agreements for voluntary and mutual exchange of people between Greece and Bulgaria are being concluded, which aims to soothe the Macedonian problem in Aegean Macedonia. Under her patronage are the agreements between Greece and Albania regulating the protection of Greek minorities and schools, as well as settling the border dispute between the Serb-Croat-Slovene Kingdom and Albania in 1921. The rapid intervention of the United Nations suspended the Greek aggression on Bulgarian territory in the autumn of 1925 and prevented a possible new war. Dimitar Shalev's petitions from Skopje to the United Nations aim to achieve the Yugoslav state's humane treatment towards Bulgarian minorities within its borders, but political dependencies and overlapping contradictions are an obstacle to peaceful and sustainable political outcomes. In the second half of the 1930s, the League lost its initial prestige, and in the course of the emerging new global conflict it fell into political dependence, marking its collapse. Unresolved issues and contradictions, along with the harsh political post-war realities, quickly bury the League’s noble impetus.

Collective Security and Collective Self-Defense Under the Charter of the United Nations

1948 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 783-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Kelsen
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Individual Member ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
Enforcement Action ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Individual

Collective security is the main purpose of the United Nations, just as it was the main purpose of its predecessor, the League of Nations. What does collective security mean? Under general international law the principle of self-help prevails. The protection of the legal interests of the states against violations on the part of other states is left to the individual state whose right has been violated. General international law authorizes the state, i.e., the individual member of the international community, to resort, in case of a violation of its rights, to reprisals or war against that state which is responsible for the violation. Reprisals and war are enforcement actions. Insofar as they are reactions against violations of the law, and authorized by it, they have the character of sanctions. We speak of collective security when the protection of the rights of the states, the reaction against the violation of the law, assumes the character of a collective enforcement action.

Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-Operation Among States

1967 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 703-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piet-Hein Houben
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Special Committee ◽  
The United Nations

Since the very beginning of its existence the United Nations, like the League of Nations before it, has experienced how difficult it is to define the scope of the most general and fundamental principles of international law in a declaration of legal significance. Today this is still the case, as appears from the efforts undertaken since the establishment four years ago of a United Nations Special Committee, which was given the task of studying in what way and to what extent the primary principles of international law contained in the Charter could yield rules adapted to the changed world situation. Before considering in detail the most recent proceedings of the Special Committee, it seems useful briefly to recall the context within which the Committee started its work.

Recent Developments in United Nations Treaty Registration and Publication Practices

1982 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mala Tabory
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Publication Practices ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations Charter

The framework for the systematic registration and publication of international agreements on an intergovernmental level was set in Article 18 of the League of Nations Covenant, and later in Article 102 of the United Nations Charter. The purpose of treaty registration and publication is to give effect to the principle and policy of “open covenants”—enunciated as the first of President Wilson’s Fourteen Points—in lieu of secret diplomacy. In addition, these procedures serve to record “contemporary trends in substantive international law” for the benefit of judicial and government practitioners, scholars, and specialists in various fields.

scholarly journals Preventive diplomacy in international law and its implementation on the territories of former Yugoslavia

2009 ◽  
Vol 61 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 112-140
Author(s):  
Maja Sahadzic
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Priority

The term preventive diplomacy was first used in the United Nations in the late fifties when Secretary General Dag Hammarskj?ld 'invented' it to describe the remaining function that the United Nations could apply in the bipolar system of international relations. Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali included it in the Agenda for Peace in 1992 putting it in the same rank with peace-keeping, peace?making and peace-building concepts, thus giving preventive diplomacy a high political priority. In this paper the author deals with the following questions: the impact of the Cold War on the emergence of preventive diplomacy, meaning of preventive diplomacy, international documents and institutions related to preventive diplomacy and the attempts to implement preventive diplomacy in the former Yugoslavia.

United Nations Constitutional Assistance

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-79
Author(s):  
Vijayashri Sripati
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
The United Nations

This chapter establishes United Nations Constitutional Assistance (UNCA) as a significant but uncharted international and constitutional law topic. UNCA is defined as a set of activities undertaken to produce/internationalize the Western liberal constitution. The Constitution’s salience is outlined to show that UNCA: sires UN/International Territorial Administration; is salient vis-à-vis the UN’s assistance in all other sectors (e.g., electoral, judicial, rule of law); and underpins UN peacebuilding/UN Statebuilding. This backdrop sets the stage for the book’s mission: to analyze UNCA through the concept of ‘Policy Institution’ and Purposive Analysis (analysis of the UN’s official statements). Which is: to investigate and identify the Constitution’s internationalization by international organizations (e.g., the League of Nations and the United Nations); to analyse how the Constitution and its purposes fit into international law and public policy; to consider how states internationalized the Constitution to achieve colonial trusteeship; and to explain how the legitimacy of UNCA with, and without ITA might be appraised in the light of this analysis.

2 The Historical and Normative Background: ‘Freedom of Transit’ in International Law

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azaria Danae
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Historical Transition

Chapter 2 examines the development of ‘freedom of transit’ in international law. It provides the historical and normative landscape for treaties on transit of energy via pipelines and offers a basis for academic comparison in the following chapters. The chapter begins with the analysis of the development of rules concerning transit through waterways (cross-border rivers, international canals, transit at sea), and continues by examining the development of rules concerning transit overland through the prism of the historical transition from the League of Nations to the United Nations and the debate about transit rights of landlocked states. It illustrates that in international law, the development of ‘freedom of transit’ via different routes came about separately, and served diverse purposes, for particular routes and for particular groups of states. However, in each case the balance between the interests of the transit state and those of other states underlies all rules concerning transit.

India

2019 ◽  
pp. 550-575
Author(s):  
BS Chimni
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
East India Company ◽  
British India ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
The United Nations

This chapter examines international law in India, offering an overview of India’s engagement with international law in the colonial and postcolonial periods. Whether it is the fact of the East India Company becoming an empire, or British India becoming an original member of both the League of Nations and the United Nations, India’s relationship with international law has been somewhat unusual. The review in this chapter encompasses the following sub-themes: the development of international law in the colonial era, 1600–1947; the place of international law in the Constitution of India 1949; the approach of Indian courts to international law, 1950–2017; and India’s multilevel engagement and contribution to international law, 1947–2017.

Fiduciary Principles in International Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 342-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan J. Criddle
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
International Community ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Military Occupation ◽  
Fiduciary Duties ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Law ◽  
United Nations Charter

This chapter explores how fiduciary principles have shaped international law from colonial times to the present. Fiduciary principles are evident not only in the text of the League of Nations Covenant and the United Nations Charter, but also in various subfields of international law, including the law governing U.N. missions, military occupation, the legal status and duties of states, and the role and responsibilities of diplomatic officers. In each of these contexts, the international community has affirmed that certain offices and institutions attract fiduciary duties under international law. Nonetheless, the international community has struggled to develop credible mechanisms for enforcing these fiduciary duties.

Small States and a New League—From the Viewpoint of Norway

1943 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 903-909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edvard Hambro
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Small States ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Post War ◽  
Great Scope

It is right that post-war planning should be made the subject of popular discussion. It is, on the whole, a healthy sign that so many books and articles are devoted to the winning of the peace, although some of them indubitably create a smoke screen of confusion. The same applies to committees and other organizations for the same purpose. These committees and their statements have two things in common: innumerable and inconclusive quotations from democratic leaders and illustrations drawn from the “success” of, or “failure” of, the League of Nations.The “Four Freedoms,” the “Atlantic Charter,” the “Declaration of the United Nations,” as well as other speeches, articles, and statements of all sorts are vague and all-comprising. They give ample scope for divergent interpretations. It should also be remembered that President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, important though their utterances are, speak for themselves. They cannot bind Congress or Parliament, although it is true that the British Parliament feels a strong loyalty to the leader of the nation.These two characteristics of the declarations of program give great scope to the professors, diplomats, politicians, journalists, and other prophets who dream of the future. Those of the soberer cast of mind try not to indulge in the luxury of day dreams. They realize that the future must be built on the experience of the past. They ask searching questions about the League.

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