The Geneva Protocol — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Geneva Protocol
John Stuart Mill · en
So we may sum up the provisions of the Covenant as to a dispute
regarding a domestic question by saying that while such a dispute might
go to the Council,[2] still the Council,[2] if the point were raised,
could make no recommendation about it; but the Council (or the
Assembly) might take the matter into consideration as a subject of
discussion when it threatened peace, with the hope and duty to preserve
the peace if possible; but in regard to this the parties remained free
to act as they might themselves finally determine.
The Protocol of course, as we have also seen,[3] makes a great change
in this situation because it contains a general agreement by the
parties not to resort to war, an agreement which is applicable to
disputes about domestic questions to the same extent that it is
applicable to disputes about international questions; this general
agreement not to go to war includes all questions of both kinds.
Furthermore, the Protocol makes it very much more likely that disputes
between Members of the League will go for a hearing to a Committee of
Arbitrators than to the Council; we have seen[4] that the likelihood of
any dispute going to the Council under the new régime, for
consideration on the merits, is remote. The functions of the Council
regarding disputes are to some extent delegated to the Permanent Court
of International Justice, but even more largely to Committees of
Arbitrators agreed on or appointed _ad hoc_.
Now the Japanese amendment is not strictly a single amendment; it is in
two parts. The first part is the last (third) paragraph of Article 5
of the Protocol, reading as follows:
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"If the question is held by the Court or by the Council to be a
matter solely within the domestic jurisdiction of the State, this
decision shall not prevent consideration of the situation by the
Council or by the Assembly under Article 11 of the Covenant."
We must bear in mind that by the second paragraph of Article 5, any
Committee of Arbitrators, in its consideration of a dispute is subject
to the same limitations concerning a dispute about a domestic question
as are provided for the Council. The method of so limiting the
Committee of Arbitrators is that the question of law is decided by the
Permanent Court of International Justice, and if that Court decides
that the question is domestic, the Committee of Arbitrators simply so
declares and proceeds no farther.