§ 485. After the place and time of meeting have been arranged—such place may be neutralised for the purpose of securing the independence of the deliberations and discussions—the representatives meet and constitute themselves by exchanging their commissions and electing a president and other officers. It is usual, but not obligatory,[843] for the Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the State within which the congress meets to be elected president. If the difficulty of the questions on the programme makes it advisable, special committees are appointed for the purpose of preparing the matter for discussion by the body of the congress. In such discussion all representatives can take part. After the discussion follows the voting. The motion must be carried unanimously to consummate the task of the congress, for the vote of the majority has no power whatever in regard to the dissenting parties. But it is possible that the majority considers the motion binding for its members. A protocol is to be kept of all the discussions and the voting. If the discussions and votings lead to a final result upon which the parties agree, all the points agreed upon are drawn up in an Act, which is signed by the representatives and which is called the Final Act or the General Act of the congress or conference. A party can make a declaration or a reservation in signing the Act for the purpose of excluding a certain interpretation of the Act in the future. And the Act may expressly stipulate freedom for States which were not parties to accede to it in future.
[843] Thus at both Hague Peace Conferences the first Russian delegate was elected president.
III TRANSACTIONS BESIDES NEGOTIATION
Bluntschli, § 84—Hartmann, § 91; Gareis, § 77—Liszt, § 20.
Different kinds of Transaction.
§ 486. International transaction is the term for every act on the part of a State in its intercourse with other States. Besides negotiation, which has been discussed above in §§ 477-482, there are eleven other kinds of international transactions which are of legal importance—namely, declaration, notification, protest, renunciation, recognition, intervention, retorsion, reprisals, pacific blockade, war, and subjugation. Recognition has already been discussed above in §§ 71-75, as has also intervention in §§ 134-138, and, further, subjugation in §§ 236-241. Retorsion, reprisals, pacific blockade, and war will be treated in the second volume of this work. There are, therefore, here to be discussed only the remaining four transactions—namely, declaration, notification, protest, and renunciation.
Declaration.
§ 487. The term "declaration" is used in three different meanings. It is, first, sometimes used as the title of a body of stipulations of a treaty according to which the parties engage themselves to pursue in future a certain line of conduct. The Declaration of Paris, 1856, the Declaration of St. Petersburg, 1868, and the Declaration of London, 1909, are instances of this. Declarations of this kind differ in no respect from treaties.[844] One speaks, secondly, of declarations when States communicate to other States or urbi et orbi an explanation and justification of a line of conduct pursued by them in the past, or an explanation of views and intentions concerning certain matters. Declarations of this kind may be very important, but they hardly comprise transactions out of which rights and duties of other States follow. But there is a third kind of declarations out of which rights and duties do follow for other States, and it is this kind which comprises a specific international transaction, although the different declarations belonging to this group are by no means of a uniform character. Declarations of this kind are declarations of war, declarations on the part of belligerents concerning the goods they will condemn as contraband, declarations at the outbreak of war on the part of third States that they will remain neutral, and others.
[844] See below, § [508], where is mentioned the attempt of the British Foreign Office to give to the term "declaration" a specific meaning.
Notification.