Studies of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law 16 Michel Erpelding | Burkhard Hess | Hélène Ruiz Fabri (eds.) Peace Through Law The Versailles Peace Treaty and Dispute Settlement After World War I Nomos BUT_Erpelding_5754-1_HC.indd 1 08.02.19 11:10 Studies of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law edited by Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Burkhard Hess Prof. Dr. Hélène Ruiz Fabri Volume 16 BUT_Erpelding_5754-1_HC.indd 2 08.02.19 11:10 Michel Erpelding | Burkhard Hess Hélène Ruiz Fabri (eds.) Peace Through Law The Versailles Peace Treaty and Dispute Settlement After World War I Nomos BUT_Erpelding_5754-1_HC.indd 3 08.02.19 11:10 Coverpicture: © Australian War Memorial, [Order 14704090] The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de ISBN 978-3-8487-5754-1 (Print) 978-3-8452-9916-7 (ePDF) British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-3-8487-5754-1 (Print) 978-3-8452-9916-7 (ePDF) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Erpelding, Michel / Hess, Burkhard / Ruiz Fabri, Hélène Peace Through Law The Versailles Peace Treaty and Dispute Settlement After World War I Michel Erpelding / Burkhard Hess / Hélène Ruiz Fabri (eds.) 354 p. Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 978-3-8487-5754-1 (Print) 978-3-8452-9916-7 (ePDF) Published by Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, Germany 2019. Printed and bound in Germany. This publication is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND). Usage and distribution for com- mercial purposes as well as any distribution of modified material requires written permission. 1st Edition 2019 © 2019 The Authors. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Nomos or the author(s)/editor(s). BUT_Erpelding_5754-1_HC.indd 4 01.04.19 13:05 Foreword This edited collection of papers contains the presentations of the Versailles Peace Treaty conference, organized by the two departments of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law, from 6 to 8 December 2017 in Luxembourg. The leitmotif of the conference was ‘peace through law’, expressing a valuable aspiration of the 1920s and early 1930s. The objective of the Conference was to bring together leading experts in dispute resolution in private and public international law on the eve of the centennial of the signing of the Treaty. The conference explored the endur- ing impacts of the Versailles Treaty with a specific focus on dispute resolu- tion, thus combining the research fields of the two departments of the In- stitute. The conference started with two successive addresses by the ambas- sadors of France and Germany in Luxembourg, Their Excellencies Mr Bruno Perdu and Dr Heinrich Kreft, who shared their views on the Peace Treaties. This symbolic gesture, for which we express our gratitude, was fol- lowed by a deeply inspiring inaugural lecture by Nathaniel Berman outlin- ing the historical context of the event’s main theme. The next day of the conference addressed the establishment of the League of Nations and other aspects of the new world order (aiming at international cooperation) estab- lished by the Versailles Peace Treaty. The political and economic conse- quences of the war primarily concerned the transfer of territories and the protection of minorities. An additional issue related to the legal founda- tions and the rescheduling of payments of reparations between 1919 and 1930. The third day of the conference focussed on the various dispute reso- lution mechanisms under the Peace Treaties, the establishment of the Per- manent Court of International Justice at The Hague and the various mixed arbitral tribunals, which gave individuals standing in proceedings under international law. 5 Foreword This publication is primarily the work of its authors, and we hereby ex- press gratitude to them for the effort they have put into writing the papers. Special thanks are due to Derek Stemple for language editing and format- ting of the manuscripts, and to Michel Erpelding, our co-editor, who—as a spiritus rector—conceived the conference and followed the progress of the publication of the papers. Finally, we would like to thank Nomos Verlag for its support and guidance in the publishing process of this book. Luxembourg, 9 January 2019 Burkhard Hess and Hélène Ruiz Fabri 6 Table of Contents Introduction: Versailles and the Broadening of ‘Peace Through Law’ 11 Michel Erpelding Part 1: Peace Through Law? Chapter 1 Drama Through Law: The Versailles Treaty and the Casting of the Modern International Stage 31 Nathaniel Berman Part 2: The Establishment of a New International Order of Peace Chapter 2 The League of Nations as a Universal Organization 67 Thomas D Grant Chapter 3 Preventing a Repetition of the Great War: Responding to International Terrorism in the 1930s 85 Michael D Callahan Chapter 4 The Legacy of the Mandates System of the League of Nations 99 Mamadou Hébié / Paula Baldini Miranda da Cruz Chapter 5 Negotiating Equality: Minority Protection in the Versailles Settlement 123 León Castellanos-Jankiewicz 7 Table of Contents Part 3: The Emergence of International Economic Law Chapter 6 Managing the ‘Workers Threat’: Preventing Revolution Through the International Labour Organization 159 Guy Fiti Sinclair Chapter 7 The Role of Private International Law: UNIDROIT and the Geneva Conventions on Arbitration 183 Herbert Kronke Chapter 8 Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty and Reparations: The Reparation Commission as a Place for Dispute Settlement? 193 Jean-Louis Halpérin Chapter 9 The Conversion of Reparations into Sovereign Debts (1920–1953) 205 Pierre d’Argent Part 4: The Institutionalization of International Adjudication Chapter 10 Peace Through International Adjudication: The Permanent Court of International Justice and the Post- War Order 217 Christian J Tams Chapter 11 International Adjudication of Private Rights: The Mixed Arbitral Tribunals in the Peace Treaties of 1919–1922 239 Marta Requejo Isidro / Burkhard Hess Chapter 12 Local International Adjudication: The Groundbreaking ‘Experiment’ of the Arbitral Tribunal for Upper Silesia 277 Michel Erpelding 8 Table of Contents Part 5: Beyond ‘Peace Through Law’: The Use of Law and Its Records as Vehicles of Resistance and Change Chapter 13 Resistance Through Law: Belgian Judges and the Relations Between Occupied State and Occupying Power 325 Didier Boden Chapter 14 The Work of Peace: World War One, Justice and Translation Through Art 337 Jennifer Balint / Neal Haslem / Kirsten Haydon 9 Introduction: Versailles and the Broadening of ‘Peace Through Law’ Michel Erpelding* On 9 May 1919, a little more than forty-eight hours after the Allies had handed over the text of the Versailles Treaty to the representatives of Ger- many, a small ceremonial dinner was held at the Hôtel Bedford, in the fashionable 8th arrondissement of Paris. As one American attendee later wrote to his wife, it was a high-brow affair. The guest list included a grand- nephew of Napoleon I, Prince Roland-Napoléon Bonaparte, and Albert I, Prince of Monaco. However, like their host, the British barrister and aca- demic Sir Thomas Barclay, most of the twenty or so diners were highly re- garded authorities on international law. They were also members of the In- stitut de Droit International (IDI), which, a few hours earlier, had concluded an extraordinary two-day session at the Ceremonial Hall of the Paris Law Faculty. All were gathered to honour the man whose ideas were profoundly changing the way people thought about international relations and inter- national law: the President of the United States of America, Woodrow Wil- son.1 The IDI had not convened since its Oxford session in August 1913—its subsequent session, meant to take place in Munich in September of the fol- lowing year, had been cancelled after the summer of 1914 had ended in mobilization and war.2 Founded in 1873 as a reaction to the Franco–Prus- sian war of 1870–1871, the IDI had vowed to ‘promote the progress of in- ternational law’. By declaring that they would ‘[strive] to formulate the gen- eral principles of the subject, in such a way as to correspond to the legal conscience of the civilized world’, its members had openly challenged the monopoly of governments over international law.3 The idea that interna- tional disputes might be better resolved by legal experts rather than gov- ernements or diplomats had also been gaining ground among a somewhat * Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law. 1 ‘Avant-propos’ (1919) 27 Annuaire IDI V–XII. 2 ibid. 3 Martti Koskenniemi, The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of Internation- al Law, 1870–1960 (CUP 2001) 47. 11 Michel Erpelding broader public. ‘Realist’ pacifist associations, such as the British Interna- tional Arbitration League, founded in 1870, or the French Association de la Paix par le Droit (‘Peace through Law Association’), established in 1887, were advocating compulsory international arbitration as an alternative to classic diplomacy. As an exclusive academic society, the IDI had always steered clear of pacifism. However, it had actively supported and contribut- ed to the development of international arbitration as a means to avoid war.4 Its efforts, and those of other groups of international lawyers, such as the American Society of International Law (ASIL), created in 1906, had had a particular resonance with decision-makers in the Americas, particularly in the United States. That very same year, Theodore Roosevelt had become the first statesman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, both for his hav- ing negotiated peace between Russia and Japan in 1905 and for having re- sorted to arbitration in a dispute with Mexico.