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tion of treaties and engagements is effected a special form, convenient for placing separately in law libraries and in private studies.

The separate index for this treaty part of the League of Nations Journal will be published at regular intervals.

10. The Secretary-General of the League proposes to organise his system of registration in the following manner, hoping that it may prove convenient alike to the parties and to all those interested in the contents of treaties and the relevant details.

A register will be kept in chronological order, stating, with regard to each treaty or other engagement or international act, the parties between which it has been concluded, the title (short title if any), the date of signature, ratification and presentation for registration, and finally, the number under which it has been registered.

The actual texts presented to the Secretariat will be kept as an annex to this register, each text being marked ne varietur by the Secretary-General or his deputy.

Apart from the chronological register, a second register will be kept which will form to some extent an état civil of all treaties and engagements concerned. For every treaty or engagement a special page will be set apart as in a ledger, where all the data concerning it will be noted-including not only the parties' signatures and ratifications, but also later adhesions, denunciations, etc. Notes relative to preparatory matter, discussions, and internal legislation arising out of the treaties, etc., may also be added.

The Secretariat may on occasion be requested to deliver to states, courts of justice or private persons interested, certified extracts from this register, attesting the existence and the status of international treaties and engagements the moment of their coming into force, their ratifications, their denunciations, the reservations entered in respect of them, etc., etc. The Secretary-General intends to make the Treaty Registration Office available for this purpose, but no legal liability for the contents of such extracts can be assumed by the Secretariat. A general index will be made to the collection of treaties and engagements. It will be arranged in a way convenient for consultation.

11. The treaty registers of the International Secretariat will, moreover, include a special series of those treaties and conventions which, by some special provision or with some special object in view, are placed under the care of the Secretary-General. An instance of such a provision will be found in Article 405 in the Treaty of Versailles,

according to which draft labor conventions will be deposited with the Secretariat. The same applies to labor recommendations.

To these may be added other draft conventions and recommendations which may be made by analogous organisations under the League of Nations.

12. It should be noted that by the provisions of Article 18 not only treaties between members of the League of Nations have to be registered, but also treaties or engagemnts entered into by a Member of the League with a state which has not yet been admitted into the League.

13. In connection with this last point, it has been suggested that the system of registration of treaties by the Secretariat of the League of Nations should from the beginning be so extended as to admit of the registration of treaties, etc., made by and between states or communities that have not yet been admitted as members of the League of Nations. This would serve to complete the registration of treaties and the public collection of treaties which will be formed by the treaty part of the League of Nations Journal. The Secretary-General therefore proposes, although the registration will be for this part absolutely voluntary, to accept applications for the registration of treaties, etc., even if none of the parties is at the time a member of the League of Nations.

The Secretary-General of the League of Nations trusts that experience may show that the system of registration and publication of treaties on the lines suggested in this memorandum will work satisfactorily. He will be glad to receive suggestions for possible modifications of the present scheme.

DRAFT-SCHEME FOR THE INSTITUTION OF THE PERMANENT COURT OF 1 INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE 1

Mentioned in Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, presented to the Council of the League by the Advisory Committee of Jurists, July 23, 1920.

(Translation)

ARTICLE 1

A Permanent Court of International Justice, to which parties shall have direct access, is hereby established, in accordance with Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. This Court shall be in addition to the Court of Arbitration organised by The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, and to the special tribunals of arbitration to which states are always at liberty to submit their disputes for settlement.

CHAPTER I

Organisation of the Court

ARTICLE 2

The Permanent Court of International Justice shall be composed of a body of independent judges, elected regardless of their nationality, from amongst persons of high moral character, who possess the qualifications required, in their respective countries, for appointment to the highest judicial offices, or are jurisconsults of recognised competence in international law.

ARTICLE 3

The Court shall consist of 15 members: 11 judges and 4 deputyjudges. The number of judges and deputy-judges may be hereafter increased by the Assembly, upon the proposal of the Council of the League of Nations, to a total of 15 judges and 6 deputy-judges.

1 Official Journal, League of Nations, Spl. Supp., No. 2 (Sept., 1920).

ARTICLE 4

The members of the Court shall be elected by the Assembly and the Council from a list of persons nominated by the national groups in the Court of Arbitration, in accordance with the following provisions:

ARTICLE 5

At least three months before the date of the election, the SecretaryGeneral of the League of Nations shall address a written request to the members of the Court of Arbitration, belonging to the states mentioned in the Annex to the Covenant or to the states which shall have joined the League subsequently, inviting them to undertake, by national groups, the nomination of persons in a position to accept the duties of a member of the Court.

No group may nominate more than two persons; the nominees may be of any nationality.

ARTICLE 6

Before making these nominations, each national group is hereby recommended to consult its highest court of justice, its legal faculties and schools of law, and its national academies and national sections of international academies devoted to the study of law.

ARTICLE 7

The Secretary-General of the League of Nations shall prepare a list, in alphabetical order, of all the persons thus nominated. These persons only shall be eligible for appointment, except as provided in Article 12, paragraph 2.

The Secretary-General shall submit this list to the Assembly and to the Council.

ARTICLE 8

The Assembly and the Council shall proceed to elect by independent voting first the judges and then the deputy-judges.

ARTICLE 9

At every election, the electors shall bear in mind that not only should all the persons appointed as members of the Court possess the qualifications required, but the whole body also should represent the main forms of civilisation and the principal legal systems of the world.

ARTICLE 10

Those candidates who obtain an absolute majority of votes in the Assembly and the Council shall be considered as elected.

In the event of more than one candidate of the same nationality being elected by the votes of both the Assembly and the Council, the eldest of these only shall be considered as elected.

ARTICLE 11

If, after the first sitting held for the purpose of the election, one or more seats remain to be filled, a second and, if necessary, a third sitting shall take place.

ARTICLE 12

If after the third sitting one or more seats still remain unfilled, a joint conference, consisting of six members, three appointed by the Assembly and three by the Council, may be formed, at any time, at the request of either the Assembly or the Council, for the purpose of choosing one name for each seat still vacant, to submit to the Assembly and the Council for their respective acceptance.

If the committee is unanimously agreed upon any person who fulfils the required conditions he may be included in its list, even though he was not included in the list of nominations made by the Court of Arbitration.

If the joint conference is not successful in procuring an election those members of the Court who have already been appointed shall, within a time limit to be arranged by the Council, proceed to fill the vacant seats by selection from amongst those candidates who have obtained votes either in the Assembly or in the Council.

In the event of an equality of votes amongst the judges, the eldest judge shall have a casting vote.

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