The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1922-02-17

put civilization under the control of
law and courts and not wait until we
have removed causes that are buried
perhaps irremovably in the breast of
human nature.
IA. From the foregoing it follows
that in order to outlaw war, it is nee
essary to codify international law,
and one of the first articles of the
code should abolish the institution Of
war for the settlement of disputes be-
tween nations, by making it illegal
and criminal. A real court should be
created with power judicially to hear
and determine all international con-
troversies as enumerated in the code.
Is. The code should be prepared by
the leading statesmen and jurists of
the world with all civilized nations
represented in an international con-
ference called for that purpose. It
may take two years to prepare such a
code. Senator Knox thought it would
take five years. Therefore, a COM
mitment in principle to a plan for the
cOdification of international law, the
creation of a court with affirmative
specified jurisdiction and the criminal
outlawry of war is all that is neces-
sary at this time. The Code Confer
ence will do the rest.
Is. The expense Of securing and
literally paying for the services of
the best brains of the world for the
work of codification, and also giving
each member of the conference life
pension, will not exceed one one-hun-
dredth of one per cent of the cost Of
the last war, or thirty million dollars.
II. 1t remains to consider the OBJ
stacles and objections to such a pro-
gram. They seem to be as follows:
(a) The love of power that resides
in rulers and their ministers which
disincline them to lose their greatest
weapon. This, of course, applies main
ly to the large nations, as most of the
small nations have been willing to do
away with war fer many years. At
both Hague Conferences the small ma
lions tried to have universal obliga-
tory arbitration adopted, but the big
nations always defeated it. The first
obstacle thus applies to the large ma
lions and usually takes on this word
formula: "The world is not yet ready
for so great step" The United
States, however, through Mr.. Cboate,
at the second Hague Conference, took
leading stand in favor of universal
arbitration. 1t is the purpose of the
big nations, as shown by article XIV
of the League of Nations, to refer to
arbitration only such disputes as they
see fit, reserving to themselves the
power of their ornaments to decide
all others. This is why Article XIV
of the League creates an international
court without any inherent jurisdic-
ton at all. 1t is purely consent
court with the right of consent to jur-
isdiction to be given or withheld at
the pleasure of any nation after the
dispute has arisen. In short, it is no
court at all.
(b) Another objection is that if the
proposed international court is given
affirmative jurisdiction to hear and
determine disputes (Which it has under
the outlawry proposal it must have
the power to enforce its DEGREES. Par
ticularly to a lawyer this seems at
| first to be necessary to the dignity
and respect of any court. The inter-
national court must of course be CIV
en- adequate power to enforce it's
judgments against all war criminals.
The precise manner in which this may
best be accomplished would be one of
the important functions of the Codi-
fication Conference. But as to the
civil DEGREES of the court a reading
of the history of our constitutional
debates will probably be persuasive if
not convincing that force is not in
dispensable. When it was proposed to
give the United States Supreme
Court original jurisdiction over con-
troversies between states, it was con-
tended that the court should have the
power to enforce its judgments in
such cases as in all others. Madison,
however, took the ground that to do
so would be to destroy the sovereignty
Of the individual state, and would Gre
ate anarchy, revolt and rebellion. He
commended it was not proper to ap-
point receiver for state and that
reliance must be placed on the con-
sent of the states to the jurisdiction
of the Supreme Court and on their
agreement to abide by its decisions.
AS great an authority as the late
Senator Knox believed this to be a
practical working model for the
World Court. However, this ques-
ton of enforcement is one to be set
tied by the learned delegates at the
convention for the codifcation of in
ternational law. Much may be said in
favor of an international force, or a
force contributed to by various nations
to aid in the execution of the interna-
tional courts civil DEGREES as well as
it's criminal judgments. Whichever
way this may be decided, it will not
affect the reason for outlawing war.
1t is probable that revolution cannot
be altogether prevented. For if ma
ton is strong and mad enough to de-
fly the world, either generally or in re-
sistance to a decree of an information
al court that is a risk that must be
provided against, because it will al
ways be inherent in any program. But
revolutions, as we ordinarily view
them, are domestic in character and
therefore not within the scope of the
theory of outlawry which deals only
with controversies between nations.
Any form of domestic violence wheth-
err rising through revolution, riots or
otherwise, is subject, to the control Of
International machinery and amend
able TO domestic law