PANAMERICANISM

140. A SOCIETY OF AMERICAN NATIONS

[Panama, June 24, 1926. The two resolutions were translated and published by The Star and Herald of Panama, June 25, 1926, on page 1.]

The Panamerican Centennial Congress, or El Congreso Panamericano conmemorativo de del Bolívar, met in Panama from June 18 to June 25, 1926. Its purpose was twofold: to commemorate in an appropriate manner the services rendered by Simón Bolívar in behalf of the cause of the Americas and to afford a further opportunity to bring about closer and more friendly relations between the peoples of these continents. Among its acts was the adoption of the two following resolutions.

I

Whereas the nations of the New World are united by eternal bonds of democracy and by the same conception of justice and liberty; and, Whereas the logic of the principles which they have maintained and still maintain and of the interests which affect them should determine a close unity in action to better insure the greatest efficiency of the former and the freer development of the latter:

Be It Resolved: To recommend to the Nations of the New World that they adopt as their policy in their international relations the principle that every act carried against one of them violating the universally recognized precepts of International Law shall constitute an offense for all and, therefore, provoke among them a uniform and common reaction.

II

The Congress of Bolívar, after having studied the works submitted with relation to topic "b" of item No. 1 of the program of the Congress, which says: "Idea of a League which corresponds with the

Pan-American conception of the Congress of Bolívar," and in view of the difficulties which have arisen in reaching immediate practical results owing to the brief duration of this Assembly; Agrees:

1. To recognize the convenience of constituting a Society of American Nations, which, within the modern conception of International Law, and, considerate of the situation of the Nations of the Continent, may correspond to the fundamental aspiration of Bolívar, which gave life to the Congress of Panama.

2. To recommend, in effect, to the Governments of the American countries that they reach an agreement to hold a Congress of Plenipotentiaries for the exclusive purpose of elaborating the constitutive pact of that League.

3. That this Congress of Plenipotentiaries be held in an American city which the governments, by agreement, shall designate.

4. That the Government of Panama be charged with initiating before the American Chancelleries the preliminary negotiations for the convocation and assembly projected.

5. That the Pan-American Union be urged to lend its coöperation for the speediest and best realization of this idea.

6. That copies of the works presented on the subject which motivates this agreement be forwarded to the Governments of the Continent for their information and guide.

141. DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF NATIONS

[Washington, January 6, 1916. James Brown Scott, The Final Act and Interpretative Commentary Thereon. The Second Pan-American Scientific Congress, December 27, 1915-January 8, 1916 (1916), 114-115. United States Government Printing Office, Washington.]

The American Institute of International Law held a meeting in Washington, D.C., in 1915-1916. Its sessions were held in connection with and under the auspices of the Second Panamerican Scientific Congress. Among its important acts was the adoption of the document given in full below.

Whereas, the municipal law of civilized nations recognizes and protects the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to the pursuit of happiness, as added by the Declaration of Independence of the United

States of America, the right to legal equality, the right to property, and the right to the enjoyment of the aforesaid rights; and

Whereas, these fundamental rights, thus universally recognized, create a duty on the part of the peoples of all nations to observe them; and

Whereas, according to the political philosophy of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, and the universal practice of the American Republics, nations or governments are regarded as created by the people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are instituted among men to promote their safety and happiness and to secure to the people the enjoyment of their fundamental rights; and

Whereas, the rights and duties of nations are, by virtue of membership in the society of nations, exercised and performed conformably to the requirements of the solidarity uniting the members of the society of civilized nations, recognized by the First Hague Peace Conference in 1899, and reaffirmed by the Second Hague Peace Conference in 1907; and

Whereas, the Nation is a moral or juristic person, the creature of law, and subordinated to law as is the natural person in political society; and

Whereas, we deem that these fundamental rights can be stated in terms of international law and applied to the relations of the members of the society of nations, one with another, just as they have been applied in the relations of the citizens or subjects of the states forming the Society of Nations; and

Whereas, these fundamental rights of national jurisprudence, namely, the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to the pursuit of happiness, the right to equality before the law, the right to property, and the right to the observance thereof are, when stated in terms of international law, the right of the nation to exist and to protect and to conserve its existence; the right of independence and the freedom to develop itself without interference or control from other nations; the right of equality in law and before law; the right to territory within defined boundaries and to exclusive jurisdiction therein; and the right to the observance of these fundamental rights; and

Whereas, the rights and duties of nations are, by virtue of membership in the society thereof, to be exercised and performed in accordance

with the exigencies of their mutual interdependence expressed in the preamble of the Convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes of the First and Second Hague Peace Conferences, recognizing the solidarity which unites the members of the society of civilized nations:

Therefore, The American Institute of International Law, at its first session, held in the City of Washington, in the United States of America, on the sixth day of January, 1916, adopts the following six articles, together with the commentary thereon, to be known as its Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Nations.

I. Every nation has the right to exist and to protect and conserve its existence; but this right neither implies the right nor justifies the act of the state to protect itself or to conserve its existence by the commission of unlawful acts against innocent and unoffending states.

II. Every nation has the right to independence in the sense that it has a right to the pursuit of happiness and is free to develop itself without interference or control from other states, provided that in so doing it does not interfere with or violate the rights of other states.

III. Every nation is in law and before law the equal of every other nation belonging to the society of nations, and all nations have the right to claim and, according to the Declaration of Independence of the United States, "to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them."

IV. Every nation has the right to territory within defined boundaries, and to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over its territory, and all persons whether native or foreign found therein.

V. Every nation entitled to a right by the law of nations is entitled to have that right respected and protected by all other nations, for right and duty are correlative, and the right of one is the duty of all to observe.

VI. International law is at one and the same time both national and international; national in the sense that it is the law of the land and applicable as such to the decision of all questions involving its principles; international in the sense that it is the law of the society of nations and applicable as such to all questions between and among the members of the society of nations involving its principles.

142. PERU'S HOMAGE TO AN URUGUAYAN STATESMAN

[1917. Inter-America, II, 215–220. Reprinted by permission of the author, Víctor Andrés Belaúnde, and the publishers, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of Intercourse and Education, New York.]

Baltasar Brum of Uruguay has had a distinguished career, having served his country in many important positions, notably that of secretary of foreign affairs and president of the republic. He has been for many years an advocate of a closer union of the American states, but on a basis of absolute equality. He has advocated an American league which would consider jointly all American problems and the members of which would undertake to defend each other against aggression either from the Old World or from another power in the New World. In the league there were to be no regional understandings, such as the Monroe Doctrine. In their place would be a Panamerican doctrine which would give concrete expression to American solidarity and enlarge the community of interest between the various states composing the whole of America. The excerpts here given are from an address delivered in honor of Brum at the University of San Marcos by Professor Víctor Andrés Belaúnde of that institution on the occasion of the visit of the Uruguayan to Lima in 1917.

In my words I bring homage and a memory: homage because the youths of Perú have desired, in conferring this highest of honors upon me, that I should to-night gather and express their applause of your ideas and your victories; and a memory, that of the campaigns you have inaugurated as a student in the congress of Montevideo, a happy augury of the undertakings it has fallen to your lot to achieve as a statesman. Your companions of that pleasant assembly have beheld with pride how, with the passing years, their irreplaceable secretary has changed into the public man of continental figure. It was not a surprise to our fraternal intuition that your powers of organization in the labors of the congress should be exalted later to the accomplishment of administrative reforms of transcendent importance; that your tact and your political acumen, enriched by experience and culture, should assign to you the task of restoring your party; and