ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Norway's efforts to strengthen the rule of law in the international system by focusing on the key period between 1918 and 1921, when the post-war order was established. In keeping with the spirit of the Hague peace conferences, Norway's emphasis on legalism was based on a belief that peace between nations depended on establishing a system of compulsory and binding forms of pacific settlement to resolve international disputes. Norway was one of the first states to ratify the Protocol of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) on 20 August 1921. When the governments received an official invitation to submit their own recommendations for a permanent international court, the Scandinavian Study Committees agreed that the previous joint draft for an international judicial organisation–drawn up in December 1918–was no longer applicable in the new situation and found it necessary to prepare a new proposal.
