Affichage de 2551 résultats

The Legal Section had two main objectives: on one hand to act as a judicial adviser to the Council, Commissions and Secretariat (see most of the Sections of the Secretariat for this activity) and on the other hand to record treaties and other international agreements.

This Section officially disappeared in 1940, but its work was carried on.

The Legal Section gave judicial advices to the Secretary General (since 1933, judicial advices were recorded in the Subject Index of the Registry). It helped to create international law by drawing up international conventions. A general codification of international law was established, particularly with regard to administrative and economic matters and the League of Nations attempted to promote the codification of certain important technical branches of international law.

The League of Nations' most important achievement in legal affairs has been the work of its judicial organ, the Permanent Court of International Justice, the highest judicial authority in the world, which sat at the Hague.

The objectives of the Permanent Court of International Justice were to prevent disputes from degenerating into wars. By establishing international precedents, it developped international law, and by administering justice between States, it helped to promote world stability.

The main task of the Mandates Section, first called "Mandatory Section" was to prepare the work and documents for the Permanent Mandates Commission and supply it with experts. It also prepared the work for the Council and the Assembly in the field of mandates and slavery. The Mandates Section dealt with slavery questions since 1922. It already used to deal with this kind of problem through questions such as colonial or race problems.

The Permanent Mandates Commission was established in February 1921. It received and examined the annual reports of the Mandated Powers and petitions relating to mandated territories. It was on the basis of these reports that the Commission advised the Council as to whether or not the conditions of each mandate were being strictly observed. It also assisted the Council in supervising all matters related to this issue. It was also responsible for securing the well-being and development of the peoples who inhabited the territories in question.

In 1939, the Section was merged into Department I.

Among the political, administrative and humanitarian tasks with which the League of Nations found itself entrusted under the terms of the Covenant itself, was that of supervising the tutelary administration of the colonies and territories which, as a consequence of the first world war, had ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States which had formerly governed them, and which were inhabited by "peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world".

The Peace Conference of 1919 decided that these territories should be ruled by mandate. Under Article 22 of the Covenant, "... the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilisation... The best method of giving practical effect to this principle is that the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to advanced nations who, by reason of their resources, their experience or their geographical position, can best undertake this responsibility... this tutelage should be exercised by them as Mandatories on behalf of the League". The British Empire, France and Belgium were entrusted with the governance of the mandated territories.

Three categories of mandates, "A", "B", "C", were applied "according to the stage of the development of the people, the geographical situation of the territory, its economic conditions and other similar circumstances" (Article 22 of the Covenant).

In administering the territories in question, the Mandatories were to observe certain principles laid down in general terms in the Covenant and further defined in the mandates adopted by the Council of the League of Nations. The Covenant also laid down that the Mandatories were to render to the Council an annual report on the administration of the territories committed to their charge.

Under the United Nations, the work of the Mandates Commission continued through the Trusteeship Council, though it was no longer composed of non-governmental representatives. However, as the previously-mandated countries have become officially recognized as sovereign and independent States, its responsibilities have steadily diminished.

The League of Nations Library was, at the beginning, a simple working instrument of the Secretariat.

The Library was founded in 1919 at the same time as the League of Nations. It was first housed in London, in 1920, and then transferred to Geneva, where it was allotted a few offices in the Hôtel National, on Quai Wilson, where the League of Nations was located for the first fifteen years of its existence.

The Library soon began to play an important part in the work of the League of Nations. In 1923, a Committee of Librarians set up by the Council of the League of Nations pointed out the great advantages of setting up a world center for the study of international affairs at the headquarters of the League of Nations.

In 1927, when the League of Nations launched a project for building the future Palais des Nations, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. contributed 2 million dollars to endow the League of Nations with a modern library suitable for the study of international relations.

Although a United States national, (the United States were not a member of the League of Nations), it was Rockefeller's wish that the League of Nations Library be dedicated to "serve as an information center of international research" both for the Secretariat and for students and scholars, and "as an instrument of international understanding".

This donation expressed Rockefeller's strong belief in the role of the League of Nations Library to promote peace through knowledge.

Following this gift, a separate wing was added to the Palais des Nations to house the Library, which opened in 1936. (The United Nations Library is now located in this building). The idea that the Library should be the custodian of the League of Nations' institutional memory had been developed from the original concept of the building. Consequently a large space was reserved within the building to house a League of Nations Museum, which opened in 1947.

The Library soon became established not only as the main point of information and documentation for the work of the Secretariat and the various Commissions of the League of Nations, but also as an important research institute and as an issuing center of its own publications. Thus it needed a specialized staff.

The Library was divided into two main services:

• a legal and political information service, and
• an economic and financial one.

The nature of the Library collections was determined by the articles of the League of Nations Covenant (1920), which defined the missions of the League of Nations. These collections were made of three categories of works in different languages:

• books and brochures (collections of legal, political and economic works),
• official governmental documents (including statistical publications, gazettes and reports of Parliamentary debates of countries from all over the world),
• periodicals and newspapers (including judicial, economic, financial, political and social publications).

The Library collection of laws and official gazettes was the most complete in Europe. The Library also possessed a collection of reference books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, yearbooks, etc.

Books were catalogued according to the Brussels classification system. The catalogue was organized by authors, subjects and titles.

The Library used to publish documents such as:

• a list of international acts (deeds) and legislative treaties, as well as a classification of laws published by Parliaments;
• a weekly list of governmental publications;
• a monthly chronicle of political facts (elections, governmental changes etc.);
• a monthly list of selected articles resulting from the indexing of about 1000 periodicals, (list distributed to all foreign affairs ministers, institutes and universities);
• a monthly list of new books received by the Library;
• a bibliography of works published by the League of Nations;
• a bibliography of all works about the League of Nations.

One of the Library's most important tasks was to make a complete and up-to-date collection of documents and publications issued by the League of Nations organs.

All documents published by the Secretariat and the International Labour Office also represented a great deal of the Library collection. The League of Nations Library also started to develop archival collections relating to peace movements (A. Fried and B. von Suttner archives).