but at the same time it is the agency of the member States to firmly establish the understandings of international law among the Governments of those States. It does this by using methods of arbitration and conciliation in settling disputes, and by creating a Court of International Justice. One of the functions of this international person is to assume the trusteeship of the Saar Basin for a period of at least fifteen years; this means that it is vested with a legal title to, and with legal authority over, the territory of the Basin. In other words, all the rules of international law which apply in restraining one government from encroaching on the rights of another, apply to the League in its government of the Basin, except as otherwise stipulated by the Versailles Treaty. The officials of the League enjoy diplomatic privileges and immunities when engaged on League business; the representatives of the members of the League enjoy the same privileges and immunities. Inviolability attaches to the buildings and property occupied by the League or its officials or by representatives attending meetings of the League.

The League maintains no ambassadors or ministers at the capitals of its members. The purpose of such representatives is to furnish an agency through which one government deals with another. In case of the League this purpose is fulfilled, and the objects for which the organization was created are attained, through the three instrumentalities provided for in the Covenant. When the Assembly and the Council are not in session, the permanent Secretariat is the central agency for transacting League business falling within its sphere.

While possessing some attributes of sovereignty which have hitherto been regarded as attaching to sovereignty over any particular State, and as expressed by the Govern

ment of that State, the League possesses only those attributes which the members believed could better be assigned to a common agency than retained by themselves. They believed that by granting to this continuous international agency certain so-called rights of sovereignty formerly belonging to themselves, the residue of sovereignty retained by them would be more secure, and not liable to destruction by conquest of a foreign Power. They further saw that they would be represented in the League, the common agency for exercising those attributes of sovereignty voluntarily given it by the member States. In other words, a new international person has been created, and the members of the League have clothed that person with only enough power, machinery, and sovereignty, to make reasonable of expectation the attainment of the ends for which it is primarily created, viz., the maintenance of international peace and security, and the promotion of international coöperation, through the development of international law.

CHAPTER XI

CONCLUSIONS

IN forming conclusions as to the effect of the League of Nations upon international law in the future, it is well to recapitulate the defects in that law, and in the general international system, which existed before the establishment of the League, and then note the remedies or improvements brought about, or likely to be brought about, by the formation of the League.

The defects and weaknesses in the system existing up to the time of the adoption of the Covenant and subsequent establishment of the League of Nations, may be indicated by the following questions:

(1) Of conflicting conceptions of international law, which was the correct conception? Was there really a system of international law, or only a code of ethics to be regarded or disregarded at will? If there was a system of law, was it positive or natural law, and did the nations of the world need a system of positive law to govern them in their relations with one another?

(2) Granting that the need of a system of law was realized, were the methods of developing that law adequate for the changing conditions in international relationship?

(3) Was the need of a system of law felt so keenly by the nations of the world that they felt prepared to join together in giving effect to the law and providing sanctions to uphold it?

(4) Was the international machinery for administering

the law and applying it to disputes between nations, adequate for the purpose?

(5) And finally, was the theory of international law formulated in the seventeenth century under the then prevailing notions of sovereignty, and economic separateness of nations, adequate in every respect for the world of 1920?

The answers to these questions have been given in the body of this paper. They may be summarized in a single paragraph:

In view of the preamble of the Covenant which makes the understandings of international law the actual rule of conduct among Governments, and of that section of the Versailles Treaty providing for the trial of certain Germans for violation of the laws and customs of war, it is seen that international law is not a code of ethics, but is a system of law. The Covenant shows plainly that the nations now realize the need. of a system of positive law. They also realize the inadequacy of the old machinery for administering and applying the law, and have by the Covenant provided new agencies for these purposes, the most important of which is the court of international justice. They have felt the need of a system of law so keenly that they have united to give effect to the rule of law, and have agreed to provide sanctions in certain cases where the supremacy of the law is threatened. They have agreed to modify the hitherto prevailing conception as to what a sovereign nation may or may not do, and have cast their lot with a common league of all, to the end that the government of the world may be a government by law and not by diplomats closeted in their secret chambers.