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World Court Digest

I. Substantive International Law - First Part
7. LAW OF TREATIES
7.9. Specific Treaties
7.9.5. Treaty between the Allied and Associated Powers and the Kingdom of the Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes on the Protection of Minorities of 1919

¤ Application of the Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide,
Provisional Measures,
Order of 13 September 1993,
I.C.J. Reports 1993, p. 325

[pp. 339-340] 29. Whereas the first additional basis of jurisdiction relied on by the Applicant is the Treaty between the Allied and Associated Powers (the United States of America, the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan) and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, on the Protection of Minorities, signed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 10 September 1919 (hereinafter called the "1919 Treaty"), which came into force on 16 July 1920; whereas Chapter I of the 1919 Treaty concerns protection of minorities, and includes an Article 11 whereby that protection was placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations; whereas that Article provides (inter alia):

"The Serb-Croat-Slovene State agrees that any Member of the Council of the League of Nations shall have the right to bring to the attention of the Council any infraction, or any danger of infraction, of any of these obligations, and that the Council may thereupon take such action and give such directions as it may deem proper and effective in the circumstances.
The Serb-Croat-Slovene State further agrees that any difference of opinion as to questions of law or fact arising out of these Articles between the Serb-Croat-Slovene State and any one of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers or any other Power, a member of the Council of the League of Nations, shall be held to be a dispute of an international character under Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Serb-Croate-Slovene State hereby consents that any such dispute shall, if the other party thereto demands, be referred to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The decision of the Permanent Court shall be final and shall have the same force and effect as an award under Article 13 of the Covenant";

whereas Chapter II of the 1919 Treaty, concerning succession to treaties, commerce, treatment of foreign vessels, and freedom of transit, contains an Article 16 which provides inter alia:

"All rights and privileges accorded by the foregoing Articles to the Allied and Associated Powers shall be accorded equally to all States Members of the League of Nations";

and whereas the Applicant contends that the effect of these two Articles is that a dispute to which Article 11 of the 1919 Treaty applied could be referred to the Permanent Court of International Justice by any State which was a Member of the League of Nations; whereas the Applicant contends further that the jurisdiction conferred on the Permanent Court of International Justice by the 1919 Treaty is exercisable by the present Court by virtue of Article 37 of the Statute of the Court;
30. Whereas the Applicant contends further that Yugoslavia has succeeded to the rights and obligations of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes under the 1919 Treaty; and whereas, as regarded its own right to invoke the 1919 Treaty, the Applicant contends that, in the light of, inter alia, General Assembly resolution 24 (I), the United Nations has assumed the functions and powers of the League of Nations regarding, inter alia, the 1919 Treaty, and the General Assembly has substituted itself for the Council of the League in that respect, and concludes that

"Bosnia-Herzegovina, as a member State of the United Nations, thus is in the position of the States described in Articles 11 and 16 of the Serb-Croat-Slovene Treaty, namely, the member States of the League, and thus its dispute with Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) is one over which this Court has jurisdiction";

31. Whereas in order to reach a decision on the contentions of Bosnia-Herzegovina as to the 1919 Treaty as a basis of jurisdiction, the Court will not have to pronounce on the question whether Articles 11 and 16 of the 1919 Treaty are still in force, nor on their interpretation; whereas the 1919 Treaty on the face of its text imposes an obligation on the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to protect minorities within its own territory; whereas accordingly, if, and in so far as, Yugoslavia is now bound by the 1919 Treaty as successor of that Kingdom, its obligations under it would appear to be limited to the present territory of Yugoslavia; whereas Bosnia-Herzegovina has put forward no claim in its Application concering the treatment of minorities in Yugoslavia, and has requested no provisional measures in that respect; whereas therefore the Court considers that, in any event, the 1919 Treaty is irrelevant to the present request for provisional measures;