PROTOCOL, in diplomacy, the name given to a variety of written instruments. The French word protocole is derived from the late Latin protocollum, from the Greek first, and KoXXELp to glue, i.e., originally the first sheet of a papyrus roll. The protocollunc under the late Roman empire was a volume of leaves, bound together with glue, in which public acts were recorded, so as to guard against fraud or error on the part of those responsible for preparing them ; and in later usage it came to be applied to the original drafts of such acts. Thus, too, the word prothocollare was devised for the process of drawing up public acts in authentic form.
In diplomacy the name of "protocol" is given to the minutes (proces-verbaux) of the several sittings of a conference or con gress; these, though signed by the plenipotentiaries present, have only the force of verbal engagements (see CONGRESS). It is also given to certain diplomatic instruments in which, without the form of a treaty or convention being adopted, are recorded the principles or the matters of detail on which an agreement has been reached, e.g., making special arrangements for carrying out
the objects of previous treaties, defining these objects more clearly, interpreting the exact sense of a doubtful clause in a treaty (protocoles interpretatifs) and the like. Occasionally also an agreement between two or more powers takes the form of a protocol, rather than a treaty, when the intention is to proclaim a community of views or aims without binding them to eventual common action in support of those views or aims.
Finally, "the protocol" (protocole diplomatique, protocole de chancellerie) is the body of ceremonial rules to be observed in all written or personal official intercourse between the heads of different states or their ministers. It lays down the styles and titles of states, their heads and public ministers, and indicates the forms and customary courtesies to be observed in all inter national acts. "It is," says M. Pradier-Fodere, "the code of international politeness." See P. Pradier-Fodere, Cours de droit diplomatique (1899), ii. 499 ; E. Satow, Diplomatic Practice.