Lecture 4:

15.12.2022
Evolution
Evolution of International Institutions
Pre- 15th Century
(Before 1401)
• Consular Institutions and ambassadors
• The institution of the consul, an official of the State whose essential task was to
watch over the interests of the citizens of this State engaged in commerce in a
foreign port.
• Ambassadors were concerned with representing their state and being dispatched
for the purpose of a specific negotiation.
• Feudal system
• Although embryonic forms of international organizations have been present
throughout recorded history, for instance, in the form of the so called
amphictyonic councils of ancient Greece, the late-medieval Hanseatic League or
such precursors as the Swiss Confederation and the United Provinces of the
Netherlands.
15th-16th Century
(1400-1599)
• Renaissance (1350-1550)
17th-18th Century
(1600-1799)
• 1648: The signing of the peace of Westphalia established the principle
of national sovereignty in Europe. This notion of sovereign equality
represents the first real ordering principle among states.
• Situations soon arose in which the essentially bilateral relationships
established by diplomatic embassies or missions were inadequate. For
example, a problem would arise that concerned not two but many
States.
19th Century
(1800-1899)
• Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815)
• Napoleonic Wars were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and
its allies, led by Napoleon, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into
various coalitions.
• Concert of Europe (1814-1914)
• Concert of Europe, in the post-Napoleonic era, the vague consensus among the
European monarchies favoring the preservation of the territorial and political status quo.
The term assumed the responsibility and right of the great powers to intervene and
impose their collective will on states threatened by internal rebellion.
• Congress Of Vienna (1815) was the first of a series of international meetings that came
to be known as the Concert of Europe, an attempt to forge a peaceful balance of power in
Europe. It served as a model for later organizations such as the League of Nations in
1919 and the United Nations in 1945.
• The Hague system (1899, 1907)
Concert of Europe
• The first of major streams of the development of International
Institutions.
• A series of conferences- Congress of Vienna (1815), Congress of Paris
(1856), London Conference (1871…), Berlin Congresses (1878…).
• Assumption of special status and responsibility by the most powerful
states.
• An exclusive club for great powers whose members were
self-appointed guardians of the European community and executive
directors of its affairs.
• Mutual jealousy tended to limit the misuse of power.
• In the Treaty of Paris (1815) the Quadruple Alliance was established
to maintain peace. European solidarity took a root in the 19th century
which is expressed here.
• More than traditional peace conferences.
• Judicial settlement.
• First time dealing problem with collective action. Ex- Balkan
territories.
• Didn’t produce permanently functioning institutions for handling the
problems of politics and security.
• Didn’t have any rule of law.
• Didn’t produce any agency politically superior to nation-states and
capable of upholding the moral standards of a larger community.
• A system of ‘de facto’ great power hegemony
Context:
• Emergence of state
• War was discouraged because of the realization of not gaining
anything from it.
• Felt the necessity of an agreement on the basis of which state will
operate.
• The emergence of scholars like- Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, Hugo Grotius who gave ideas about the International
system.
Problem Related to the Grand Alliance:
• Prevent conflict but fail the institutionalization of cooperation
• Create a supranational authority
• Not cooperation with each other.
• No automatic representation.
The Hague system (1899, 1907)

• The Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907 were an effort to secure, on a

multilateral basis, agreement on different aspects of the law relating to the conduct
of warfare on land and on the sea, and on the duties of neutral states.
• The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and
declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at the Hague in the
Netherlands.
• Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were among the first
formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the body of secular
international law.
• A third conference was planned for 1914 and later rescheduled for 1915, but it did
not take place due to the start of World War I.
Why important?
• Approach universally.
• The first codification of International law is based on cooperation.
• First time feeling the necessity of a regular basis conference.
• The necessity of judicial settlement of the dispute.
• The first conference initiated by Czar Nicolas II
• Politically motivated
• Russia’s ultimate contribution to the establishment of International
institutes.
• The first conference was attended by 26 states where most of them
from Europe. The second conference was attended by 44 states
including the bulk of the Latin American Republics.
• A significant step towards broadening the focus of International
diplomacy and escaping the European fixation.
• A major diplomatic assembly of small states on equal terms with the
great power.
• Settle more problems than the concert of Europe
• Development of International law
• Going towards systemization
• A committee was proposed to set the agenda
• Adopted Pacific Settlement of International Dispute.
• Reform of the rules and methods rather than solving problems
The Hague System Failed as-
• Failed to put the decisions into effect.
• Failed to solve the problem.