Page 9

Parent Remarks to Court on the motion attacking the jurisdiction of the Tribunal
Date June 1946
Language English
Collection Tavenner Papers & IMTFE Official Records
Box Box 3
Folder General Reports and Memoranda from June 1946
Repository University of Virginia Law Library
Article 2 provided, “In case of serious disagreement or disputes, before an appeal to arms, the Contracting Powers agree to have recourse, as far as circumstances allow, to the good offices of mediation of one or more friendly powers.” In the Treaty of Versailles, which included the Covenant of the League of Nations, it is provided in Section 4 of Article 4 of the Covenant, “The Council may deal at its meetings with any matter within the sphere of the action of the League or affecting the peace of the world.” Article 11, Section 1, provided, “Any war or threat of war, whether immediately affecting any of the Members of the League or not, is hereby declared a matter of concern to the whole League and the League shall take any action that may be deemed wise and effectual to safeguard the peace of nations.” Article 12, Section 1 provided, “The members of the League agree that if there should arise between them any dispute likely to lead to a rupture, they will submit the matter either to arbitration or judicial settlement or to enquiry by the Council, and they agree in no case to resort to war until three months after the award by the arbitrators or the judicial decision or the report by the Council.” In 1924, a further step forward was taken in the Geneva Protocol for the Pacific settlement of international disputes which was signed by the representatives of forty-eight governments and specifically declared, “A war of aggression constitutes . . . an international crime.” This was followed in the Eighth Assembly of the League of Nations in 1927 when a unanimous resolution adopted by the representatives of the forty-eight member Nations declared again that a war of aggression constituted and international crime. Japan was a signatory of both these instruments. The Kellogg-Briand Pact, also known as the Pact of Paris, declared in Article I, “The High Contracting parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for