Origins And History of The Hague
Discover the rich, royal history of The Hague, where kingdoms rose and fell, leaders were born, and art and culture flourished.
Most of the awakened can see the roman reef and automatically tie the organisation to Rome ,however many are yet to make that connection.
So here is A brief history of The Hague: from medieval to modern times.
As in most of the Netherlands, people have lived in the region that is now The Hague for thousands of years – long before the city ever had a name.
Archaeologists have found the remains of settlements dating as far back as 3800 BC; some of these treasured artefacts can now be found in the Museon, one of the many museums in The Hague where you can step back in time and explore the city’s rich history.
The Hague: history in the medieval times
The birth of The Hague as we know it today can be traced back to the 13th century, when Count Floris IV of Holland purchased the land it now sits on as hunting grounds.
After Floris IV’s death, his son William II planned to expand the hunting residence to a royal palace. Though he died before its completion, this series of buildings eventually became what is now the Binnenhof, the heart of the Dutch government.
It was around this time that The Hague’s first official name, Die Haghe, was born.
Since the 13th century, the city has served as a hub for politics in the Netherlands.
Unlike other major cities, it had no fortified walls and was vulnerable to attack.
This meant that during the Eighty Years’ War, in which the Dutch fought to gain independence from Spain, The Hague was pillaged and plunged into poverty. Despite this, it remained a central point of the resistance, and became the official seat of Dutch political power again in 1588.
The Hague in the Golden Age
Soon after the Netherlands established its independence, the country’s ‘Golden Age’ began.
This is when The Hague blossomed, acting as both the residence and the working place of the stadtholders, who helped rule the Netherlands from the 15th to the 18th century. It was also a popular place to live and work for both the wealthy and the working class, and as the population of The Hague skyrocketed, so did the number of mansions, districts and harbours in the city.
The peaceful period did not last long, and soon the Netherlands was thrust into turmoil: the Napoleonic Wars created the United Netherlands, comprising of both the Netherlands and modern-day Belgium, and the capital shifted from The Hague to Amsterdam and Brussels.
Belgium seceded from the Netherlands in 1830, and The Hague once again reclaimed its spot as the heart of the Dutch government. After The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, the city became known worldwide as the capital of international justice.
The Hague: from WWII to modern international leader
During World War II, The Hague was targeted by Nazi Germany in what is now known as the Battle for The Hague, which took place just four days before the devastating bombing of Rotterdam.
Nazi Germany failed in its initial plan, but The Hague still suffered extensive damage.
After the war, The Hague’ reputation as a meeting place for international law and order continued to flourish.
The International Court of Justice was established in the city in 1945, and another international meeting was also held in The Hague: the Congress of Europe, considered one of the first steps towards a unified Europe.
Theres 1945 again.
Isn’t it peculiar that so many issues we see with the TRESPASS against us today all stem from this area in time 🤔
Anyway back to the article.
These days, The Hague is still the heart of the Dutch government, and the base for the King’s residential and working palaces.
Numerous finance, telecom and insurance corporations have chosen The Hague as their place of international operations, and embassies and government buildings fill its boulevards.
From its humble beginnings as a place for hunting, The Hague has truly become a centre for prosperity and peace.
History of the City of Peace and Justice
The Hague’s current role as host to international organisations and the international community is part of a tradition dating back more than 750 years.
‘Legal capital of the world.’
It was no one other than the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who uttered these words to describe the unique position of The Hague.
These are weighty words, but not at all unjustified.
The Hague has had an international character for a long time.
Hugo Grotius and Spinoza
The Hague has been an international city and a centre of legal knowledge for several centuries.
Since the late 16th century, when the government of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was founded in The Hague, the city has been a home to foreign diplomats.
It was in The Hague that the famous jurist Hugo Grotius wrote his book Mare Liberum (The Freedom of the Sea). Published in 1609, this work forms the basis for modern international law.
The 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, known on account of his fundamental ideas on peace and freedom, spent the final years of his life living and working in The Hague.
The Supreme Court of the Netherlands, the highest court of the country, has also been based in The Hague since 1838.
Peace Conferences in The Hague
A new chapter opened at the end of the 19th century when Tobias Asser, who would later go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, founded the Hague Conference on Private International Law in 1893.
This makes it the oldest international organisation in The Hague still in existence today.
The First Peace Conference took place 6 years later, leading to the creation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the body that mediates disputes between countries.
A remarkable building – the Peace Palace – was designed specially for this court.
Construction of the Peace Palace began during the Second Peace Conference in 1907, and it was completed in 1913.
Intresting that The First World War broke out the following year.
The Peace Palace Library was also housed here from the very beginning.
Between the First and the Second World War, the Permanent Court of International Justice was based in the Peace Palace.
This was the legal branch of the League of Nations (the forerunner to the United Nations). Pre United Nations .
Thats right folks the New World Order was errected in the 40s unbeknownst to the simple folk .
More about the First and Second Peace Conferences.
Second United Nations city
The International Court of Justice was founded in 1946 right after the Second World War.
It, too, was housed in the Peace Palace.
This highest legal body of the United Nations is the only main branch of the organisation not based in New York.
The Hague is therefore quite justified in describing itself as the second U.N. city.
In 1981 the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal was established, further consolidating the role of The Hague as the centre of international legal arbitration.
160 international organisations
At the start of the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War, international cooperation in the field of security and international criminal law enjoyed something of a renaissance.
In less than 10 years, various new – and in some cases groundbreaking – organisations were set up.
The largest are the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1993), Europol (1994), the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) (1997) and the International Criminal Court (2002), all of which are based in The Hague.
The city and its surrounding area are now home to 160 international organisations.
The International knowledge centre.
It is thanks in part to the presence of so many international organisations that The Hague has become an international knowledge centre in the field of peace and justice.
A solid basis for this has been laid by organisations like the T.M.C. Asser Institute, Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’, The Hague Academy of International Law, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (www.hcss.nl(externe link)) and the International Institute of Social Studies.
More recent additions include The Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law and Campus The Hague, the second home of Leiden University, which expanded with the opening of a University College in The Hague in 2010.
So what powers does the Hague hold 🤔
The International Court of Justice (ICJ),[1] sometimes called the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). The ICJ settles disputes between states and gives advisory opinions on international legal issues referred to it by the UN. Through its opinions and rulings, it serves as a source of international law.
| International Court of Justice | |
|---|---|
| Cour internationale de justice | |
| International Court of Justice Seal | |
| Established | 1945 (PCIJ dissolved in 1946) |
| Location | The Hague, Netherlands |
| Coordinates | 52°05′11.8″N 4°17′43.8″E |
| Authorized by | UN CharterICJ Statute |
| Judge term length | 9 years |
| Number of positions | 15 |
| Website | www.icj-cij.org |
| President | |
| Currently | Abdulqawi Yusuf |
| Since | 6 February 2018 |
| Lead position ends | 5 February 2021 |
| Vice President | |
| Currently | Xue Hanqin |
| Since | 6 February 2018 |
| Lead position ends | 5 February 2021 |
The ICJ is the successor of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which was established by the League of Nations in 1920.
After the Second World War, both the League and the PCIJ were succeeded by the United Nations and ICJ, respectively.
The Statute of the ICJ draws heavily from that of its predecessor, and the latter’s decisions remain valid.
All members of the UN are party to the ICJ Statute.
The ICJ comprises a panel of 15 judges elected by the General Assembly and Security Council for nine-year terms. The court is seated in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, making it the only principal U.N. organ not located in New York City.[2] Its official working languages are English and French.
History
The first permanent institution established for the purpose of settling international disputes was the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), which was created by the Hague Peace Conference of 1899.
Initiated by Russian Czar Nicholas II, the conference involved all the world’s major powers, as well as several smaller states, resulted in the first multilateral treaties concerned with the conduct of warfare.
Among these was the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, which set forth the institutional and procedural framework for arbitral proceedings, which would take place in The Hague, Netherlands. Although the proceedings would be supported by a permanent bureau—whose functions would be equivalent to that of a secretariat or court registry—the arbitrators would be appointed by the disputing states from a larger pool provided by each member of the Convention.
The PCA was established in 1900 and began proceedings in 1902.
A second Hague Peace Conference in 1907, which involved most of the world’s sovereign states, revised the Convention and enhanced the rules governing arbitral proceedings before the PCA.
During this conference, the United States, Great Britain and Germany submitted a joint proposal for a permanent court whose judges would serve full-time. As the delegates could not agree as to how the judges would be selected, the matter was temporarily shelved pending an agreement to be adopted at a later convention.
The Hague Peace Conferences, and the ideas that emerged therefrom, influenced the creation of the Central American Court of Justice, which was established in 1908 as one of the earliest regional judicial bodies.
Various plans and proposals were made between 1911 and 1919 for the establishment of an international judicial tribunal, which would not be realized into the formation of a new international system following the First World War.
The Permanent Court of International Justice
The unprecedented bloodshed of the First World War led to the creation of the League of Nations, established by the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as the first worldwide intergovernmental organization aimed at maintaining peace and collective security.
Article 14 League’s Covenant called for the establishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which would be responsible for adjudicating any international dispute submitted to it by the contesting parties, as well as to provide an advisory opinion upon any dispute or question referred to it by the League of Nations.
In December 1920, following several drafts and debates, the Assembly of the League unanimously adopted the Statute of the PCIJ, which was signed and ratified the following year by a majority of members. Among other things, the new Statute resolved the contentious issues of selecting judges by providing that the judges be elected by both the Council and the Assembly of the League concurrently but independently.
The makeup of the PCIJ would reflect the “main forms of civilization and the principal legal systems of the world”.
The PCIJ would be permanently placed at the Peace Palace in The Hague, alongside Permanent Court of Arbitration.
The PCIJ represented a major innovation in international jurisprudence in several ways:
- Unlike previous international arbitral tribunals, it was a permanent body governed by its own statutory provisions and rules of procedure
- It had a permanent registry that served as a liaison with governments and international bodies;
- Its proceedings were largely public, including pleadings, oral arguments, and all documentary evidence;
- It was accessible to all states and could be declared by states to have compulsory jurisdiction over disputes;
- The PCIJ Statute was the first to list sources of law it would draw upon, which in turn became sources of international law
- Judges were more representative of the world and its legal systems than any prior international judicial body.
- As a permanent body, the PCIJ would, over time, make a series decisions and rulings that would develop international law
Unlike the ICJ, the PCIJ was not part of the League, nor were members of the League automatically a party to its Statute.
The United States, which played a key role in both the second Hague Peace Conference and the Paris Peace Conference, was notably not a member of the League, although several of its nationals served as judges of the Court.
From its first session in 1922 until 1940, the PCIJ dealt with 29 interstate disputes and issued 27 advisory opinions. The Court’s widespread acceptance was reflected by the fact that several hundred international treaties and agreements conferred jurisdiction upon it over specified categories of disputes. In addition to helping resolve several serious international disputes, the PCIJ helped clarify several ambiguities in international law that contributed to its development.
The United States played a major role in setting up the World Court but never joined.
Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and Roosevelt all supported membership, but it was impossible to get a 2/3 majority in the Senate for a treaty.
Establishment of the International Court of Justice
Following a peak of activity in 1933, the PCIJ began to decline in its activities due to the growing international tension and isolationism that characterized the era.
The Second World War effectively put an end to the Court, which held its last public session on December 1939 and issued its last orders on February 1940.
In 1942 the United States and United Kingdom jointly declared support for establishing or re-establishing an international court after the war, and in 1943, the U.K. chaired a panel of jurists from around the world, the “Inter-Allied Committee”, to discuss the matter. Its 1944 report recommended that:
- The statute of any new international court should be based on that of the PCIJ;
- The new court should retain an advisory jurisdiction;
- Acceptance of the new court’s jurisdiction should be voluntary;
- The court should deal only with judicial and not political matters
Several months later, a conference of the major Allied Powers—China, the USSR, the U.K., and the U.S.—issued a joint declaration recognizing the necessity “of establishing at the earliest practicable date a general international organization, based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all peace-loving States, and open to membership by all such States, large and small, for the maintenance of international peace and security”.
The following Allied conference at Dumbarton Oaks, in the United States, published a proposal in October 1944 that called for the establishment of an intergovernmental organization that would include an international court. A meeting was subsequently convened in Washington, D.C. in April 1945, involving 44 jurists from around the world to draft a statute for the proposed court.
The draft statute was substantially similar to that of the PCIJ, and it was questioned whether a new court should even be created. During the San Francisco Conference, which took place from 25 April to 26 June 1945 and involved 50 countries, it was decided that an entirely new court should be established as a principal organ of the new United Nations.
The statute of this court would form an integral part of the United Nations Charter, which, to maintain continuity, expressly held that the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was based upon that of the PCIJ.
Consequently, the PCIJ convened for the last time in October 1945 and resolved to transfer its archives to its successor, which would take its place at the Peace Palace.
The judges of the PCIJ all resigned on 31 January 1946, with the election of the first members of the ICJ taking place the following February at the First Session of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council. In April 1946, the PCIJ was formally dissolved, and the ICJ, in its first meeting, elected as President José Gustavo Guerrero of El Salvador, who had served as the last President of the PCIJ.
The Court also appointed members of its Registry, drawn largely from that of the PCIJ, and held an inaugural public sitting later that month.
The first case was submitted in May 1947 by the United Kingdom against Albania concerning incidents in the Corfu Channel.
Activities
The Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, seat of the ICJ
Established in 1945 by the UN Charter, the court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice.
The Statute of the International Court of Justice, similar to that of its predecessor, is the main constitutional document constituting and regulating the court.
The court’s workload covers a wide range of judicial activity.
After the court ruled that the United States‘s covert war against Nicaragua was in violation of international law (Nicaragua v. United States), the United States withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction in 1986 to accept the court’s jurisdiction only on a discretionary basis.
Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter authorizes the UN Security Council to enforce Court rulings.
However, such enforcement is subject to the veto power of the five permanent members of the Council, which the United States used in the Nicaragua case.
So What are the 11 crimes against humanity according to the Hague ?
These crimes against humanity entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly enabling such trespass against the free sovereign men and women of planet earth….
What powers does the hague allegedly hold 🤔
The personal jurisdiction of the Court extends to all natural persons who commit crimes, regardless of where they are located or where the crimes were committed, as long as those individuals are nationals of either (1) states that are party to the Rome Statute or (2) states that have accepted the Court’s jurisdiction …
Of course the City of Rome The Catholic church the city of london and Washington dc play their part however there are other players in the game also .
We shall discuss these in future articles.
These other players are Various sovereign states , treatys and conventions including geneva , liber codes and agreements, united nations as well as many other secret and non secret organisations.
All these players make up the unelected elites.
The Treaty of Den Haag (1701) or Treaty of The Hague (1701) was signed on 7 September 1701 between Great Britain, the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, and the United Provinces.
The same year as the act of settlement uk become law rendering all Catholic ties to the throne null and void 🤔
However It reconstituted the 1689 anti-French Grand Alliance in response to the issues that resulted in the War of the Spanish Succession.