Peace through law : Britain and the International Court in the 1920s / Lorna Lloyd.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-299) and index.

Pt. 1. Stop Go, 1920-1924. 1. The origins of the Optional Clause. 2. The Labour Party and the Optional Clause, 1920-September 1924. 3. The fifth (1924) Assembly of the League of Nations and British policy -- Pt. 2. Slow but Steady, 1925-1929. 4. The League of Nations Union and British policy. 5. The Assembly of the League of Nations and British policy. 6. The United States and British policy. 7. The dominions and British policy -- Pt. 3. Arrival, 1929. 8. The second Labour government and Britain's acceptance of the Optional Clause. App. 1. Biographical notes -- App. 2. Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice, Article 36 and the Optional Clause -- App. 3. League of Nations Covenant, Articles 10-16 -- App. 4. Protocol for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes 1924 (the Geneva Protocol), Articles 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 -- App. 5. United Kingdom declaration accepting the Optional Clause --

App. 6. United Kingdom explanatory statement on the Optional Clause -- App. 7. Dominion statements and Irish declaration on the Optional Clause.

In the 1920s it was thought in some circles that a promising road to peace lay in getting states to agree to take their disputes to the newly-established International Court. This book shows how a variety of pressures, both domestic and international (and not least from some of the British Dominions), resulted in Britain's initial refusal to accept such an obligation being reversed by the end of the decade.

It was a Labour government which actually committed Britain to using the Court; but contrary to the common belief, the previous Conservative government was already moving in the same direction. In this, the 'peace through law' approach had achieved a remarkable success.

The book is based on an exhaustive examination of British documents, and on discussions with one of the major British exponents of the 'peace through law' approach, Philip Noel-Baker. It throws light on the attitudes of great powers towards international adjudication, and an approach to peace that, after years of neglect, appears to have regained prominence in the wake of the ending of the Cold War.