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

1943 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 903-909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edvard Hambro

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.

Author(s):  
Dimitar Tyulekov ◽  
Ilko Drenkov ◽  
Jani Nikolla

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.


1984 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shlomo Slonim

The United States has been involved in the question of Jerusalem ever since the American government assumed a major role in promoting adoption of the Palestine Partition Resolution at the United Nations in 1947. The continuing centrality of the Jerusalem issue in the Arab-Israeli dispute is attested to by the references to Jerusalem in the 1982 Reagan Plan for Peace in the Middle East. Even more significant is the fact that although the Jerusalem issue did not figure in the text of the 1978 Camp David Agreements, it was the subject of three separate letters appended to the Agreements by Prime Minister Begin, President Sadat and President Carter. In fact, it is no secret that the Camp David Talks nearly foundered at the last minute over the Jerusalem question. Moreover, it is noteworthy that the United States, which signed the Agreements simply as a witness and not as a party, found it necessary and proper to publicly define its position on the issue of Jerusalem. On no other issue did the American government feel compelled to put forth an official independent viewpoint in the final documents.


1949 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leland M. Goodrich

Referring to “domestic jurisdiction” as used in the League Covenant, Professor J. L. Brierly characterized it as “a new catchword,” capable of proving as great a hindrance to the orderly development of international law as “sovereignty” and “state equality” had been in the past, and about which “little seems to be known except its extreme sanctity.” Since these words were written, the Covenant of the League of Nations has been replaced by the Charter of the United Nations as the basic law of the organization of the world community. The concept of a reserved domestic jurisdiction is still with us. In fact, Article 2, paragraph 7, of the Charter gives it a broader definition and a wider range of application than did Article 15, paragraph 8, of the Covenant. What is the meaning of the domestic jurisdiction principle as set forth in the Charter? What effect has it had in practice on the working and development of the United Nations?


1965 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leland M. Goodrich

It is a truism that the text of the Charter gives a quite misleading picture of the United Nations as it is today. In no respect is this more true than in the working of the Organization in the maintenance of international peace and security. Those provisions of the Charter which were claimed by its authors to provide the new Organization with teeth that the League of Nations did not have either have never been used or have in practice been of little importance. New emphases and new methods have been developed through the liberal interpretation of Charter provisions. These have not always been equally acceptable to all Members, however. The process of adaptation and development continues, with great present uncertainty as to what the future has in store.


1947 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-120

Although closely bound to the League of Nations, the ILO did not go out of existence with its dissolution, but continued functioning as an independent agency during the war, despite the League's breakdown. During the past year, the ILO-United Nations agreement was signed, the ILO thus becoming the oldest of the “specialized” intergovernmental agencies to be brought into relationship with the United Nations. Other activities of the ILO during 1946 included the 29th International Labor Conference, a Maritime Conference, an American States Regional Conference, and the first meetings of four newly created Industrial Committees.


1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-131

Yes, well, I spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning about the subject, and to talk with him about the necessity of moving this process forward and trying to make sure that we're able to proceed on a fairly rapid schedule here. We had hoped—as you know, Barry—to bring the people here. These were the meetings that we had worked out both when I was in the region, and then up in the United Nations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 310-330
Author(s):  
Nigel D. White

Abstract The “Covenant” embodied the idea of a contract for peace in 1919. The “Charter” of 1945 appeared more boldly to embody a world constitution for peace. This article analyses the United Nations and its predecessor organisation, the League of Nations, to demonstrate how each organisation was primarily a product of the conflict that preceded it and how each captured the post-war status quo. Despite this shared backward-looking aspect, both treaties were sufficiently broad to accommodate significant constitutional developments with the potential to shape the collective security systems to meet changing geopolitical conditions. Members of the League failed to seize this opportunity but the promise of an improved collective security system, moreover one based on fundamental laws, offered by the drafters of the Charter, is found to be problematic. The transference of competence from member states to organisation that marked the transition from League to UN, which, when combined with the legalisation of hierarchy by the Charter, have meant that the UN order, despite appearing to be more obviously constitutionalised, was potentially less able to achieve peace through law than its predecessor.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-318
Author(s):  
Roman Girma Teshome

The effectiveness of human rights adjudicative procedures partly, if not most importantly, hinges upon the adequacy of the remedies they grant and the implementation of those remedies. This assertion also holds water with regard to the international and regional monitoring bodies established to receive individual complaints related to economic, social and cultural rights (hereinafter ‘ESC rights’ or ‘socio-economic rights’). Remedies can serve two major functions: they are meant, first, to rectify the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage sustained by the particular victim, and second, to resolve systematic problems existing in the state machinery in order to ensure the non-repetition of the act. Hence, the role of remedies is not confined to correcting the past but also shaping the future by providing reforming measures a state has to undertake. The adequacy of remedies awarded by international and regional human rights bodies is also assessed based on these two benchmarks. The present article examines these issues in relation to individual complaint procedures that deal with the violation of ESC rights, with particular reference to the case laws of the three jurisdictions selected for this work, i.e. the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems.


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