The Geneva Protocol — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Geneva Protocol
John Stuart Mill · en
Take the next required fact, that a State has refused to submit a
dispute to the procedure for pacific settlement. It is very easy to
suppose cases where there would be a difference of view as to this. A
State might claim, for example, that the matter was a domestic question
which it did not have to submit to the procedure for pacific
settlement. There might be a difference of opinion as to whether or
not the matter had been actually decided by the tribunal. It is not at
all uncommon in municipal law for parties to disagree as to whether a
particular question is or is not _res judicata_; there have been many
litigations over this very point; and there have been international
arbitrations in which it was raised.[9]
Similarly, difference of opinion might exist as to whether or not a
State had disregarded a determination that the matter in dispute was
domestic or as to whether or not a State had {59} submitted a question
for discussion under Article 11 of the Covenant. Such differences of
opinion could easily arise because of the non-formulation in precise
terms of just what the dispute was. Parties do not always agree as to
what it is they are differing about and they may in fact be at the same
time differing as to more than one question. As to whether or not a
State had violated the provisional measures against mobilization
contemplated by Article 7 of the Protocol, that document itself
recognizes that such a question would require investigation, and in
such case and in such case only the Protocol gives the Council the
power to determine the question of fact, acting by a two-thirds
majority.
So we come back to the situation that a presumption as to the aggressor
can exist only if certain facts exist; and that the existence of one or
more of these facts may very likely be in doubt or dispute and that,
with one exception, there is no procedure for determining such
questions of fact so as to be able to say with certainty that the
presumption _does_ exist.
What is the answer to this difficulty? If we look at the matter
technically, we must conclude that none of the presumptions created by
Article 10 of the Protocol can ever arise unless the facts[10] were
admitted by the two[11] disputants. Such an admission would mean, in
other words, that one of the parties openly admitted that it was an
aggressor.
If the facts were in dispute or, in other words, if the existence of
the presumption was in dispute, the Council could not determine the
aggressor on the basis of a presumption requiring the unanimous vote of
the Council to upset it; but would be required to determine the
aggressor under the general provision which was first mentioned, under
which no presumption exists and when the Council is required by
affirmative unanimous vote to determine the aggressor.