The Geneva Protocol

by David Hunter Miller

[[5]] For the text in French and English, see Annex B, p. 132.

[[6]] Sixteen States have signed the Protocol and it has been ratified by Czechoslovakia.

[[7]] See Report to the Fifth Assembly, Annex C, p. 156, at p. 164. This Report of MM. Benes and Politis is a notable document, worthy of the ability and learning of the two Rapporteurs.

[[8]] It is herein generally called "the Protocol."

CHAPTER II.

POINTS OF APPROACH.

There are various possible points of approach to the consideration of the Protocol of Geneva. In view of the importance of the document, doubtless all such methods are useful. Indeed, in the discussion of such a paper, it is perhaps hardly possible exclusively to adopt only one angle of view, such as the historical, the political, etc. My own consideration of the paper, however, is to be primarily from the legal viewpoint; without attempting wholly to avoid other points of view I shall seek not to stress them.

The Protocol is an elaborate and technical international document; and even in attempting to consider it primarily from the legal viewpoint there are various methods or arrangements of such a discussion. The general starting point which seems to me to be most desirable is that of the legal effect of the Protocol upon the international relations of the States which become parties to it, both as among themselves and as to States not parties.