Permanent court of arbitration

      Permanent court of arbitration

Permanent court of arbitration, lists referees established by Convention for the peaceful payment of the international litigations, ratified by twenty-four nations at the time of the first of the conferences of the Hague, in 1899, and amended in 1907. Under the terms of Convention, each contracting nation designated four referees, registered near the Court for a six years mandate. The names of these members were published, and the nations engaged in a litigation used this list in order to compose a court of arbitration intended to regulate it. Court, which did not constitute a jurisdiction since its opinions were not essential on the parts, did not hold of plenary meeting. Its permanent character lay exclusively in the existence of a list of referees renewed periodically.

Before the First World War, the Court took part in the payment of fifteen cases, of which the arbitration on the fisheries of the coast of North America, between the United States and Great Britain (1910), and the arbitration on the deserters of Casablanca between Germany and France (1909). After the First World War, the majority of the nations estimated that the arbitration was not a satisfying mode of payment of the litigations, and the Court was solicited less and less often (the last returned arbitration goes back to 1932). The example and the reputation of the Court however exerted an influence significant on the decision to create the permanent Court of international justice in 1921.