The Hague Peace Conferences

Abstract

The Hague Conferences, also known as the Hague Peace Conferences, of 1899 and 1907 were important multilateral conferences held to discuss common international concerns. They initiated several key developments in the codification of the law of war and neutrality and in the creation of an international judicial system. They established a mechanism by which arbitration could solve bilateral disputes. The conferences witnessed a change in global diplomacy through the inclusion of non‐European governments, heralding the end of the Congress of Europe. The two Hague conferences mark key characteristics of twentieth‐century diplomacy including: the involvement of non‐governmental and public activists in diplomacy, the use of multilateral forums and international organizations to conduct diplomacy, and the rising importance of international law in diplomacy. The conferences legitimized central topics for diplomatic negotiation including disarmament, arms' limitation, arbitration, neutrality, and the humanitarian conduct of war.