Following this conference of 1899 there was a' wider interest in the possibility of law for• the world. While the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 05 was still in progress, a request was made by otiose interested that President Roosevelt call another conference. He had already taken the first steps toward such action when advised that the Czar of Russia desired to call the confer ence and at the close of the Russo-Japanese war. the Ctar carried out the plan. It was now fully admitted that the work of the.First Hague Conference of 1899 had been of great value for the world.
Eight years later, in 1907, a Second Hague Conference further elaborated and formulated conventional agreements, and to this Conference representatives of 44 of the states of the world, came, giving ample evidence of the tendency to. accept the principle of international legislation.. Some of the conventional agreements have been tested in the course of years. The court estab= lished for the settlement of international dis putes attained a recognized Standing. Cases affecting all parts of the world have already been decided and the awards accepted. The Second Hague Conference extended the scope of the law. Among its propositions which have not been adopted as yet into the law of nations that to establish an international prize court. This proposition was generally approved in• principle though a satisfactory method of selection of judges was not devised. To sup.: 'dement this prize court convention an attempt was made by 10 maritime nations in 1908-09 at the International Naval Conference at LoOdon to formulate the laws which the court should apply. The Declaration of London of 1909 labors of this Conference.. This Declaration has not been ratified. It 'Is' not merely In these broad national matters that the forMulation of the law has progressed, but in recent years many such matters as the follow ing have become subject of general international agreements: literary and artistic copyrights, 1902; sanitary measures, 1903; white slavery, 1904; potent drugs, 1906.
Rights, persons and property, and jurisdic tion on land and sea earlier had received atten tion; in more recent years the use of the air has been the subject of international regulation, as in the conventions of 1906 and 1912. To the last of these conventions the representatives of about 40 non-American political unities affixed their signatures, many of the larger states al lowing here, as in some other conventions, par ticipation in the formulation of the law to the divisions of which the state entity was com posed. The legislation thus rested upon a broader base than in many conventions of ear lier years.
In the application of the law for nations the progress has been exceedingly rapid. Cases which have defied the best efforts diplomacy for generations, as the North Atlantic Fisheries dispute, have been settled by due process of law in a ,few weeks. Cases' which might have re sulted in long and disastrous international con tention have been resolved• in the 'light of law. Where recourse to legal settlement of disputes was in earlier times the last resort, it has become the first, and not merely the parties to the controversy may begin the action, but third parties may of right suggest or even try to bring the parties to submit the case to the decision of the court.
It requires only a review of the conventions since 1899 to show how rapid is the formulation of the law for' nations: These international laws, in addition to' many private matters, cover the pacific settlement of international disputes; limitation of the employment of force in the collection of contract debts, laws for war on land, rights and duties of •neutral powers and persons in war land, status of enemy mer chant ships at the outbreak of hostilities, the transformation of merchant ships into war ships, the laying of automatic contact sub marine mines, bombardment by naval fortes in time of war, care of sick and wounded in time of war, rights and duties of hospital ships, exercise of right of capture in maritime war, prohibition ,of discharge of projectiles from balloons, rights and duties of neutral powers in time of war, the establishment of an inter national prize court and the law for its guidance.
Not merely had the law developed and be come somewhat widely the subject of formal international acceptance, but many of the con ventions embodying the law had been put to Severe tests. Probably few more serious tests could be imagined than that which one part of the convention for the 'Pacific Settlement of International Disputes received in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War.. In this convention there had been placed a section providing for a sort of international grand jury called' a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the facts in case of a' dispute nations when agreement to resort to such a' procedure could be' reached: On the night of 21' Oct. 1904, a division' of the Russian fleet under Admiral Rozhdeetvensky, on its way from the Balde Sea toithe Per East While•pasting through the North' Seanear the Dogger Banks, 'fired on the British fishing fleet. The fishermen suffered the loss of one trawler, five were damaged and two men were killed and six wounded. Great Britain was an ally of Japan and the sympathy in the British Isles was generally with the Japanese. When the news of this disaster spread the demand for action was urgent upon the British government. Orders were issued' by the Admiralty to the Mediterranean, Chan.: nel and Home fleets, and the British Foreign Office announced on the 25th of 'October that it had made known to Russia athat the situ ation is one which in the opinion of His Ma jesty's Government does not admit of The same day the Czar in a message to the king said she would take steps to afford com-0 plete satisfaction as soon as the circumstances of the case were cleared up." On the day the Russian fteet arrived at Vigo and re ported that the reason for the firing was the presence of Japanese torpedo boats among the. fishing vessels. This the fishermen denied. The demand in England for war had a little, time to subside and fortunately the method for honorable submission of such a dispute existed in the Convention of 1899, to which Great' Britain and Russia were parties, and it was' agreed to submit the dispute to a Commission; of Inquiry. The commission was composed of admirals from the American, Austrian, French, British and Russian navies. The report of the commissioners was adverse to the Russian. contentions and the incident was closed by the immediate payment of i65,000 to Great Britain. Thus .a dispute which might have. been regarded as an ample cause for war was; by peaceful methods settled promptly and' honorably.