ABSTRACT
Of the 26 states that participated in the I Hague Peace Conference of 1899, only one (Mexico) was from Latin America; in turn, of the 44 participating states at the II Hague Peace Conference of 1907, 18 were Latin American – as acknowledged by its Acte final 1 – which represented almost half of the participants. This substantial increase, as far as Latin American participation was concerned, can nowadays, over one century on, be fully understood and appreciated in its historical context. On the American continent, inter-state concertation had in fact begun one
decade before the first Hague Peace Conference of 1899: at the series of International Conferences of American States that commenced in 1889, and, between the I and the II Hague Peace Conferences (of 1899 and 1907). The second Conference of American states took place in Mexico City in 1901; the third in Rio de Janeiro in 1906.2 In both, the participating states displayed their preparedness in taking part in the work of systematization of international law at a universal level. Thus, at the II Conference of American States of Mexico City of 1901,
Latin American states took note of the three Conventions adopted at the I Hague Peace Conference of 1899, particularly the one on Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes, and recognized as theirs the principles underlying it. Moreover, in order to enhance recourse to arbitration, Latin American states adopted at the aforementioned Mexico Conference a
General Treaty on Arbitration, open to signature on 30 January 1902.3 By pledging the same ideals of the states that had participated in the I Hague Peace Conference of 1899, Latin American states sent a clear message to these states, to the effect that they were quite well prepared, and willing, to participate in the forthcoming conference: the II Hague Peace Conference of 1907. To the same effect, Latin American states began to give expression to the
principle of the prohibition of the use of force in inter-state relations also before the II Hague Peace Conference of 1907. It may be recalled, in this connection, that the Drago Doctrine had been formulated five years earlier, in response to an armed attack by three European powers (Germany, Great Britain and Italy) in Puerto Cabello against Venezuela. The note, disclosed by the Foreign Minister of Argentina, L.M. Drago, became well-known in European juridical circles four years prior to the II Hague Peace Conference.4
