Prize Orations of the Intercollegiate Peace AssociationIntercollegiate Peace Association
History
Prize Orations of the Intercollegiate Peace Association
Intercollegiate Peace Association
Peace; War
The chief respect in which this bias interferes with the progress of
international arbitration is in restricting the scope of general
arbitration treaties, the average formula of such treaties excluding
all questions which involve "national honor and vital interests." A
greatly modified survival of the spirit which in primitive peoples
regarded the tribe over the mountain or across the stream as a fit
object of hatred and fear, the objection to a judicial settlement of
such questions assumes that a nation's honor and vital interests are
goods peculiar in that they may be inconsistent with justice. The
attitude of the United States toward the recently proposed treaty
between England and America may be taken as typical of the attitude
which prevails on this subject generally. The formulators of the
treaty took an advanced step in that, instead of reserving questions
of national honor and vital interests, they provided for the
arbitration of all differences which are "justiciable in their nature
by reason of being susceptible of decision by the application of
principles of law or equity," thereby recognizing the judicial nature
of arbitration. The action of the Senate, however, which sustained the
opinion of the majority report of the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations, objecting to the last clause of Article III of the
treaty,[2] would indicate that the significance of a general
arbitration treaty attaches not so much to the definition of its scope
as to who shall determine what cases conform to the definition. It
would seem that the nature of the reservation is relatively
unimportant so long as its interpretation devolves upon the parties at
variance. The majority report, objecting to the delegation to the
joint high commission of the power to determine the arbitrability of
cases in terms of the treaty, contains this statement[3] in which the
minority report likewise concurs: "Every one agrees that there are
certain questions which no nation ... will ever submit to the decision
of any one else." As cases of this nature it enumerates territorial
integrity, admission of immigrants, and our Monroe Doctrine. The
significance of this insistence upon a means of evasion is evident.
There is not yet enough international confidence. The powers are not
yet ready to submit to unlimited arbitration.
[2] The clause, referring to the commission of inquiry,
reads:
"It is further agreed, however, that in cases in
which the Parties disagree as to whether or not a
difference is subject to arbitration under Article I
of this Treaty, that question shall be submitted to
the Joint High Commission of Inquiry; and if all or
all but one of the members of the Commission agree
and report that such difference is within the scope
of Article I, it shall be referred to arbitration in
accordance with the provisions of this
treaty."--_Editor._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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