§ 580. Most of the commercial treaties of the nineteenth century contain a stipulation which is characterised as the most-favoured-nation clause. The wording of this clause is by no means the same in all treaties, and its general form has therefore to be distinguished from several others which are more specialised in their wording. According to the most-favoured-nation clause in its general form, all favours which either contracting party has granted in the past or will grant in the future to any third State must be granted to the other party. But the real meaning of this clause in its general form has ever been controverted since the United States of America entered into the Family of Nations and began to conclude commercial treaties embodying the clause. Whereas in former times the clause was considered obviously to have the effect of causing all favours granted to any one State at once and unconditionally to accrue to all other States having most-favoured-nation treaties with the grantor, the United States contended that these favours could accrue to such of the other States only as fulfilled the same conditions under which these favours had been allowed to the grantee. The majority of the commercial treaties of the United States, therefore, do not contain the most-favoured-nation clause in its general form, but in what is called its conditional, qualified, or reciprocal, form. In this form it stipulates that all favours granted to third States shall accrue to the other party unconditionally, in case the favours have been allowed unconditionally to the grantee, but only under the same compensation, in case they have been granted conditionally. The United States, however, has always upheld the opinion, and the supreme Court of the United States has confirmed[957] this interpretation, that, even if a commercial treaty contains the clause in its general, and not in its qualified, form, it must always be interpreted as though it were worded in its qualified form.
[957] See Bartram v. Robertson, 122 United States 116, and Whitney v. Robertson, 124 United States 190.
Now nobody doubts that according to the qualified form of the clause a favour granted to any State can only accrue to other States having most-favoured-nation treaties with the grantor, provided they fulfil the same conditions and offer the same compensations as the grantee. Again, nobody doubts that, if the clause is worded in its so-called unconditional form stipulating the accrument of a favour to other States whether it was allowed to the grantee gratuitously or conditionally against compensation, all favours granted to any State accrue immediately and without condition to all the other States. However, as regards the clause in its general form, what might, broadly speaking, be called the European is confronted by the American interpretation. This American interpretation is, I believe, unjustifiable, although it is of importance to mention that two European writers of such authority as Martens (II. p. 225) and Westlake (I. p. 283) approve of it.
It has been suggested[958] that the controversy should be brought before the Hague Court of Arbitration, yet the United States will never consent to this. Those States which complain of the American interpretation had therefore better notify their commercial treaties with the United States and insert in new treaties the most-favoured-nation clause in such a form as puts matters beyond all doubt. So much is certain, a State that at present enters upon a commercial treaty with the United States comprising the clause in its general form cannot complain[959] of the American interpretation, which, whatever may be its merits, is now a matter of common knowledge.[960]
[958] See Barclay, op. cit. pp. 142 and 159.
[959] See above, § [554, No. 9].
[960] It is not possible in a general treatise on International Law to enter into the details of the history, the different forms, the application, and the interpretation of the most-favoured-nation clause. Readers must be referred for further information to the works and articles of Calwer, Herod, Glier, Cavaretta, Visser, Melle, and others quoted above before § [578]. See also Moore, V. §§ 765-769.
V
UNIONS CONCERNING COMMON NON-POLITICAL INTERESTS
Nys, II. pp. 264-270—Mérignhac, II. pp. 694-731—Descamps, "Les offices internationaux et leur avenir" (1894)—Moynier, "Les Bureaux internationaux des unions universelles" (1892)—Poinsard, "Les Unions et ententes internationales" (2nd ed. 1901)—Renault in R.G. III. (1896), pp. 14-26—Reinsch, "Public International Unions" (1911), and in A.J. I. pp. 579-623, and III. pp. 1-45.