Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Selected table of cases
- List of abbreviations
- Table of engagements
- Introduction
- Part I The historical and social context of international territorial administration
- Introduction
- 1 The concept of internationalisation
- 2 The Mandate System of the League of Nations
- 3 The United Nations Trusteeship System
- 4 Post-war occupation
- 5 UN territorial administration and the tradition of peace-maintenance
- Conclusion: international territorial administration – an independent device with a certain normative heritage
- Part II The practice of international territorial administration: a retrospective
- Part III The foundations of international territorial administration
- Part IV A typology of legal problems arising within the context of international territorial administration
- Part V International territorial administration at the verge of the twenty-first century: achievements, challenges and lessons learned
- Bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW
2 - The Mandate System of the League of Nations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Selected table of cases
- List of abbreviations
- Table of engagements
- Introduction
- Part I The historical and social context of international territorial administration
- Introduction
- 1 The concept of internationalisation
- 2 The Mandate System of the League of Nations
- 3 The United Nations Trusteeship System
- 4 Post-war occupation
- 5 UN territorial administration and the tradition of peace-maintenance
- Conclusion: international territorial administration – an independent device with a certain normative heritage
- Part II The practice of international territorial administration: a retrospective
- Part III The foundations of international territorial administration
- Part IV A typology of legal problems arising within the context of international territorial administration
- Part V International territorial administration at the verge of the twenty-first century: achievements, challenges and lessons learned
- Bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW
Summary
The Mandate System of the League of Nations is the second policy institution that influenced the development of territorial administration. The Mandate System and the League's practice in territorial administration are formally two different devices. Article 22 of the League Covenant did not institute a direct form of international administration involving the League itself in the conduct of governance. Rather, the mandated territories were administered by mandatory states who acted on behalf of the League. The role of the League was restricted to the exercise of supervisory functions over the mandatories whose rights and obligations were enumerated in mandate agreements. These structural differences distinguish (indirect) administration under the Mandate System from (direct) administration by the League itself in the cases of Danzig, the Saar or Leticia. But the institutional practice of the Mandate System is nevertheless of interest for the analysis of the administration of territories by the UN, because both paradigms share some conceptual parallels.
One of the main objectives of the Mandate System was to promote the “well-being and development” of dependent people and to prevent their exploitation. This idea in reflected in Article 22 of the Covenant, which tied the exercise of administering powers to the legal concept of a “sacred trust of civilisation”, while subjecting Mandatory powers to certain reporting duties vis-à-vis the League. The fiduciary nature of authority is not only a characteristic of the Mandate System, but a cardinal principle of subsequent experiments in territorial administration.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Law and Practice of International Territorial AdministrationVersailles to Iraq and Beyond, pp. 73 - 91Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008