Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907

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The Hague Conventions were two international treaties negotiated at international peace
conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands: The First Hague Conference in 1899 and
the Second Hague Conference in 1907. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague
Conventions were among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in
the body of secular international law. A third conference was planned for 1914 and later
rescheduled for 1915, but never took place due to the start of World War I. The German
international law scholar and neo-Kantian pacifist Walther Schcking called the
assemblies the "international union of Hague conferences".[1] and saw them as a nucleus
of an international federation that was to meet at regular intervals to administer justice
and develop international law procedures for the peaceful settlement of disputes,
asserting "that a definite political union of the states of the world has been created with
the First and Second Conferences." The various agencies created by the Conferences, like
the Permanent Court of Arbitration, "are agents or organs of the union."[2]
A major effort in both the conferences was to create a binding international court for
compulsory arbitration to settle international disputes, which was considered necessary to
replace the institution of war. This effort, however, failed to realize success either in 1899
or in 1907. The First Conference was generally a success and was focused on
disarmament efforts. The Second Conference failed to create a binding international court
for compulsory arbitration but did enlarge the machinery for voluntary arbitration, and
established conventions regulating the collection of debts, rules of war, and the rights and
obligations of neutrals. Along with disarmament and obligatory arbitration, both
conferences included negotiations concerning the laws of war and war crimes. Many of
the rules laid down at the Hague Conventions were violated in the First World War. The
German invasion of Belgium, for instance, was a violation of Hague III (1907), which
states that hostilities must not commence without explicit warning.[3]
Most of the great powers, including the United States, Britain, Russia, France, China, and
Persia, favored a binding international arbitration, but the condition was that the vote
should be unanimous, and a few countries, led by Germany, vetoed the idea.

Contents

1 Hague Convention of 1899

2 Hague Convention of 1907
3 Geneva Protocol to Hague Convention
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References

7 Further reading

Hague Convention of 1899

Nicholas II
The peace conference was proposed on August 29, 1898 by Russian Tsar Nicholas II.[4]
Nicholas and Count Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov, his foreign minister, were
instrumental in initiating the conference. The conference opened on May 18, 1899, the
Tsar's birthday. The conveniton was signed on July 29 of that year, and entered into force
on September 4, 1900. The Hague Convention of 1899 consisted of four main sections
and three additional declarations (the final main section is for some reason identical to the
first additional declaration):

I: Pacific Settlement of International Disputes. This section included the creation

of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
II: Laws and Customs of War on Land
III: Adaptation to Maritime Warfare of Principles of Geneva Convention of 1864
IV: Prohibiting Launching of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons
Declaration I: On the Launching of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons
Declaration II: On the Use of Projectiles the Object of Which is the Diffusion of
Asphyxiating or Deleterious Gases
Declaration III: On the Use of Bullets Which Expand or Flatten Easily in the
Human Body

The main effect of the Convention was to ban the use of certain types of modern
technology in war: bombing from the air, chemical warfare, and hollow point bullets.

Hague Convention of 1907

Commemorative medal of the 1907 convention

Theodore Roosevelt
The second conference, in 1907, was generally a failure, with few major decisions.
However, the meeting of major powers did prefigure later 20th-century attempts at
international cooperation.
The second conference was called at the suggestion of President Theodore Roosevelt in
1904, but postponed because of the war between Russia and Japan. The Second Peace
Conference was held from June 15 to October 18, 1907, to expand upon the original
Hague Convention, modifying some parts and adding others, with an increased focus on
naval warfare. The British tried to secure limitation of armaments, but were defeated by
the other powers, led by Germany, which feared a British attempt to stop the growth of
the German fleet. Germany also rejected proposals for compulsory arbitration. However,
the conference did enlarge the machinery for voluntary arbitration, and established

conventions regulating the collection of debts, rules of war, and the rights and obligations
of neutrals.
The Final Agreement was signed on October 18, 1907, and entered into force on January
26, 1910. It consisted of thirteen sections, of which twelve were ratified and entered into
force:

I: The Pacific Settlement of International Disputes

II: The Limitation of Employment of Force for Recovery of Contract Debts
III: The Opening of Hostilities
IV: The Laws and Customs of War on Land
o includes the Annex on The Qualifications of Belligerents, Chapter II:
Prisoners of War
V: The Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in Case of War on Land
VI: The Status of Enemy Merchant Ships at the Outbreak of Hostilities
VII: The Conversion of Merchant Ships into War-Ships
VIII: The Laying of Automatic Submarine Contact Mines
IX: Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War
X: Adaptation to Maritime War of the Principles of the Geneva Convention
XI: Certain Restrictions with Regard to the Exercise of the Right of Capture in
Naval War
XII: The Creation of an International Prize Court [Not Ratified][5]
XIII: The Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Naval War

Two declarations were signed as well:

Declaration I: extending Declaration II from the 1899 Conference to other types

of aircraft[6]
Declaration II: on the obligatory arbitration

The Brazilian delegation was led by the statesman Ruy Barbosa, whose contribution was
essential for the defense of the principle of legal equality of nations.[7] The British
delegation included the 11th Lord Reay (Donald James Mackay), Sir Ernest Satow and
Eyre Crowe. The Russian delegation was led by Fyodor Martens.The Uruguayan
delegation was led by Jos Batlle y Ordez, great defender of the compulsory arbitration
by creating the idea of an International Court of Arbitration, and an alliance of nations to
force the arbitration.
Korea made a futile effort to take part in the conference, in an incident known as the
Hague Secret Emissary Affair. King Gojong dispatched Yi Jun, Yi Sang-Seol and Yi WiJong as envoys to the second peace conference, to argue that Eulsa Treaty was unjust and
ask for help from the international society to recover Koreas diplomatic sovereignty. An
American missionary, Homer Hulbert, also travelled to The Hague to argue against the
treaty. All four men were denied entry.[8]

Geneva Protocol to Hague Convention

Though not negotiated in The Hague, the Geneva Protocol to the Hague Convention is
considered an addition to the Convention. Signed on June 17, 1925 and entering into
force on February 8, 1928, it permanently bans the use of all forms of chemical and
biological warfare in its single section, entitled Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in
War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of
Warfare. The protocol grew out of the increasing public outcry against chemical warfare
following the use of mustard gas and similar agents in World War I, and fears that
chemical and biological warfare could lead to horrific consequences in any future war.
The protocol has since been augmented by the Biological Weapons Convention (1972)
and the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993).

See also

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopdia Britannica article Peace
Conferences.
American Peace Society
Antimilitarism
Command responsibility
Hague Secret Emissary Affair
Martens Clause
Militarism
Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts Project
St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868 (Declaration Renouncing the Use, in Time of
War, of Explosive Projectiles Under 400 Grammes Weight)
World Federation

Notes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

^ Walther Schcking, The international union of the Hague conferences,

Clarendon Press, 1918.
^ The International Union of the Hague Conferences, page vi.
^ Robinson, James J., ABA Journal 46(9), p.978.
^ The Proud Tower, page 229
^ The never-ratified Section XII would have established an international
court for the resolution of conflicting claims to captured shipping during wartime.
^ However this extension was signed, among the great Powers, only by
United Kingdom, United States of America and Austria-Hungary. Also AustriaHungary never ratified it, so this extension remained, practically, only a purpose.
Only the Article 25, The attack or bombardment, by whatever means, of towns,
villages, dwellings, or buildings which are undefended is prohibited., with the
words "whatever means" was a limitation to aerial bombing. "Declaration (XIV)

Prohibiting the Discharge of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons. The

Hague, 18 October 1907.". Retrieved 23 August 2009.
7.
^ Klein, Robert A. (1974), Sovereign Equality Among States: The History
of an Idea, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 61
8.
^ (YiSeong) ( Seong Deog Yi ) (, Vol.11 No.1,
[2004]) [KCI ]

References

Avalon Project at Yale Law School on The Laws of WarContains the full texts
of both the 1899 and 1907 conventions, among other treaties.
List of signatory powers of the Hague Conventions
Hudson, Manley O. (January 1931). "Present Status of the Hague Conventions of
1899 and 1907". The American Journal of International Law 25: 114117.
DOI:10.2307/2189634.
Lee, Jin Hyuck. The First Hague Peace Conference 1899 as portrayed in Punch
Schlichtmann, Klaus (2003). "Japan, Germany and the Idea of the two Hague
Peace Conferences". Journal of Peace Research 40 (4): 377394.
Schcking, Walther (1918). The International Union of the Hague Conferences.
Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
Trueblood, Benjamin F. (1899). The Federation of the World. Boston and New
York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
Robinson, James J. (September 1960). "Surprise Attack: Crime at Pearl Harbor
and Now". ABA Journal 46(9). American Bar Association. p. 978.

Further reading

Barcroft, Stephen. "The Hague Peace Conference of 1899". Irish Studies in

International Affairs 1989, Vol. 3 Issue 1, pp 5568.
Bettez, David J. "Unfulfilled Initiative: Disarmament Negotiations and the Hague
Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907". RUSI Journal: Royal United Services
Institute for Defence Studies, June 1988, Vol. 133 Issue 3, pp 5762.
Scott, James Brown, ed. The Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907, Vol. 1,
The Conferences. (The Johns Hopkins Press 1909).
Trueblood, Benjamin Franklin. The Two Hague Conferences and Their Results
(1914).
Tuchman, Barbara (1996). The Proud Tower. Ballantine Books.
ISBN 0345405013.

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