Congress are automatically members of the American group. Each group possesses its own organization, with its bylaws, officers, and committees. Delegates from these groups make up the international conferences, where only they take part. Members of the Union as of June 1949 are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Burma, Canada, Ceylon, Chile, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Greece, Haiti, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Rumania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia.

PURPOSES, POWERS, AND FUNCTIONS

The purpose of the organization as stated in its statutes is ". to unite in common action the members of all parliaments . in order to secure the cooperation of their respective States in the firm establishment and the democratic development of the work of international peace and cooperation between nations. .

The object of the Union is to study all questions of an international character suitable for settlement by parliamentary action. For this purpose permanent study committees have been created to deal with political, economic, financial, juridical, colonial, ethnic, social, and humanitarian questions. The Union has considered such matters as the limitation of armaments, the codification of international law, revision of unequal treaties, the protection of minorities, problems of neutrality, international control of trusts and cartels, remedies for world-wide unemployment, the development of colonial resources, regional economic solidarity and regional economic agreements, and the present situation of non-self-governing territories.

STRUCTURE

The Interparliamentary Council, which since 1899 has been the governing body of the Union, is composed of two delegates from each affiliated parliament. At its annual meeting, it fixes the agenda, place, and date of conferences; prepares the nominations to be made at conferences; and attends to such special questions as the approval of the budget, the admission of former members of parliaments, and the nomination of auditors.

An Executive Committee, consisting of a permanent chairman and four other members elected by the conference for four-year terms, prepares the work of the Council and keeps in constant touch with the secretary general on administrative matters.

The Interparliamentary Bureau, at the head of which is a secretary general nominated for four years and which is composed of paid officers, is the central office of the Union. The Bureau deals directly with the national groups, prepares publications, and carries on the technical work of the organization.

Every year, or every two years, an Interparliamentary Council is held in one of the parliaments which are affiliated to the Union. The plenary conference acts upon draft resolutions submitted by the seven permanent committees of the Union and discusses items presented to it by the Council. Each group at the conference is entitled to a limited number of votes, a minimum of five, additional votes being allowed on the basis of the state's population. Furthermore, each group is entitled to extra votes relative to percentage membership of the lower house. The languages are English, French, and Spanish. The present Secretary General is Leopold Boissier.

FINANCES

Budget. The annual budget is prepared by the Executive Committee and approved by the Interparliamentary Council.

Expenditures during 1947 totaled 193,752 Swiss francs (approximately $45,270), and the proposed budget for 1948 amounted to 230,800 Swiss francs ($53,926).

The Bureau obtains its revenue almost entirely from member contributions. A small amount is received from interest on investments and the sale of publications.

Members' Quotas. Contributions are based upon a proportionate scale to which members consent. In accordance with a decision of the Executive Committee and the Council, the Bureau in 1947 requested the national groups to increase their contributions under the 1931 scale by 20 percent to meet increased travel and administration costs. Most members have complied with this request.

UNITED STATES RELATIONS

Authorization. Authority for United States participation in the Union is found in an act of Congress of June 28, 1935, as amended by an act of Congress approved February 6, 1948.*

Payments. The act of Congress approved February 6, 1948, authorizes an annual appropriation of $30,000, of which $15,000 is for the annual contribution of the United States toward the maintenance of the Bureau and $15,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to assist in meeting the expenses of the American group. The Act of June 28,

*See Basic Texts and Publications, p. 186.

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1935, had authorized an annual appropriation of $10,000 for each of these purposes. The authorized increase is in compliance with the Bureau's request that national groups increase their contributions to meet rising costs.

The United States pays its annual contribution from funds appropriated to the Department of State for this purpose. The United States has paid a quota of 64,200 Swiss francs ($15,000) for each of the calendar years 1947 through 1949. This amount is presently approximately 23 percent of total contributions. Prior to 1947 it paid an annual quota of $10,000.

Agencies Chiefly Concerned. Every Member of Congress is ipso facto a member of the United States group of the Interparliamentary Union since a revision of the bylaws of the American group which was passed unanimously in 1932.

Participation. The United States was one of the eight states attending the first meeting of the Interparliamentary Union at Paris in 1889. In 1903 the American group was organized. Two meetings of the Union have been held in the United States. The twelfth annual conference was held in St. Louis in 1904 and the twenty-third, in Washington, D.C., in 1925. Delegates of the American group have attended all the conferences with the exception of seven-the six succeeding the first one and the thirty-first.

RELATIONS WITH OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

The Interparliamentary Union played an important part in convening the two peace conferences held at The Hague in 1899 and 1907 respectively, and it supplemented the work of the League of Nations in extending and strengthening the cause of human welfare and universal peace. It now has a formal connection with both the United Nations, maintaining representatives at Lake Success, and with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

BASIC TEXTS AND PUBLICATIONS

Interparliamentary Union. Resolutions des conferences et decisions principales du conseil. [V. 1/1888-1910], Brussels, Misch & Thron. 1911. V. 2, 1911– 1934, Lausanne, Payot, 1935.

Department of State Bulletin, June 8, 1947, pp. 1118-1119. (Contains amendments to the basic resolutions.)

United States Participation: 36 Stat. 345; 49 Stat. 425 (22 U.S.C. 276).

The Comptes rendus of the various sessions, which contain the proceedings of the sessions in both French and English, have been published by the Interparliamentary Union since 1896. The most recent Compte rendu, published at Lausanne by Payot (766 pp.), covers the

thirty-seventh conference held at Rome in September 1948. The Inter-Parliamentary Bulletin, the official organ of the Union, is published at Geneva in two languages (French and English). Ordinarily it appears eight times a year, but during the war the issues appeared very irregularly. It has now resumed regular publication.

Collections of monographs, special studies, et cetera, dealing with the work of the Union, are also published, as indicated by the following examples:

Annuaire de l'Union interparlementaire. 1911

Brussels, Misch & Thron,

Documents interparlementaires No. 1–9. Brussels, 1910–13. 9 nos. in 2 v. Histoire documentaire de l'Union interparlementaire publiee par C. L. Lange, secretaire-general de l'Union. Brussels, Guyot, 1915.

The Interparliamentary Union from 1889 to 1939: A publication issued by the Interparliamentary bureau to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Union. Lausanne, Payot, 1939.

Informations constitutionelles et parlementaires. No. 1-24. 15 fev. 1936-dec. 1938. Geneva, Union interparlementaire, 1936–38.

Resolutions adopted by Interparliamentary Conferences and principal decisions of the Council, 1911-1946. Geneva, Payot, 1937, 232 pp.

Statutes and Regulations; financial rules; model regulations for groups. Geneva, Interparliamentary Bureau, 1931.

Principles of International Morality, International Evaluation. Geneva. Interparliamentary Bureau, 1948.

Permanent Court of Arbitration

Peace Palace, The Hague, Netherlands

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

The Permanent Court of Arbitration was established by articles XX-XXIX of the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, The Hague, July 29, 1899 and articles 41-50 of the revision of that convention, October 18, 1907.5 A chapter on arbitration procedure was considerably elaborated in the revised convention.

The last case submitted to the Court, involving the exclusion of "Radio-Orient" of Syria and Lebanon from Egypt, was decided April 2, 1940. In 1946 and 1948 the members of the Court, acting as national groups and in accordance with the Statute of the International Court of Justice, submitted to the United Nations their nominations for judges of the latter court.

MEMBERSHIP

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The convention of 1907 replaced, as between contracting parties, that of 1899. However, parties to either or both are counted as contractants supporting the system of the Court. The parties which are listed by the Administrative Council of the Court as having ratified or adhered to one or both conventions are: Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia.

6

Strictly speaking, the members of the Court are not the states parties to its creation but the persons who constitute it. In this sense the members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration consist of men "of known competence in questions of international law, of the highest moral reputation, and disposed to accept the duties of arbitration”. Each state party to either convention may designate four qualified persons for terms of six years, the list of whom constitutes the Permanent Court of Arbitration. This panel has never been numerically complete. The list, dated March 16, 1949, gives the names of 142 persons, appointed by 38 states.

PURPOSES, POWERS, AND FUNCTIONS

The function of the Permanent Court of Arbitration is to facilitate an immediate recourse to arbitration for international differences which it has not been possible to settle by diplomacy. The object of international arbitration is "the settlement of disputes between states by judges of their own choice and on the basis of respect for law."

"Not listed by the Administrative Council as being parties to the system of the Court are Austria, the Soviet Union, and Ethiopia. In October 1937 Austria notified the depository Government that it acknowledged being bound by the conventions and declarations of the Hague Conference ratified by the AustroHungarian Monarchy. The Soviet Union has taken no such affirmative action with respect to the ratification of those documents by Tsarist Russia. In August 1935 Ethiopia adhered to the Convention of 1907 and the parties were notified thereof by the Netherlands (the depository Government).