CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ EXPERIMENTS WITH INTERNATIONAL ADMINISTRATION IN THE PARIS… recruit troops of gendarmerie among the inhabitants of the country. The plebiscite took place on 20 th October 1921. Consequently, the existence of the International Commission came to its end as consequence of the German-Polish Accord on East Silesia of 1922, which provided for the final delimitation of the border between Germany and Poland. Experiments and their Legacy What is the legacy of the experiments in international administration as provided in the Paris Peace Treaties? The historical facts are crystal clear: The International Commission for the Straits , as established by the Lausanne Treaty, operated for thirteen years and was – due to hostility of Turkey – abolished in 1936. In that very year, also the International Commission for Elbe and the International Commission for Oder ceased to exist. Also, in these cases, hostility of Germany was the main reason for their abolition. Consequently, it seems that rather pessimistic forecasts for the administration by international commissions, as presented by Francis B. Sayre in his “ Experiments in International Administration ”, 69 were finally fulfilled. However, the legacy of these “experiments in international administration” is more complex. In this respect, several authors 70 considered the Paris Peace Treaties of 1919–1920 to represent an origin of any future practice of international administration by the means of international law. In his essay on “internationalisation”, Luis Delbez distinguished 71 the legacy of these administrative “experiments” into territorial and functional. He considered cases of direct administration by the League of Nations as model for the later established international administrations. Further, international commissions for administration of international rivers and straits were considered to represent examples of “functional” international administration, paving the way for later established Danube Commission, International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe River etc. In his monograph on “ The Law and Practice of International Territorial Administration ”, Carsten Stahn argues 72 that “the Treaty of Versailles started a new tradition of communitarian internationalisation. Internationalisation was, in particular, used as a tool to rearrange the balance of power between Germany and its neighbours. It served mainly as a device to settle the territorial status of those territories that were of strategic interest in Europe’s geopolitical architecture.” However, in one line with Luis Delbez, also Carsten Stahn ranks the international commissions established under the Paris Peace Treaties to administer international rivers and straits to the category of “functional” international administration. 73 In this respect, he observes, 74 that “territories may be said to be functionally internationalised in situations in which one or several specific functions of 69 Francis Sayre (n 11) 14-15 70 YDIT, M.: Internationalised territories from the “Free City of Cracow” to the “Free City of Berlin” (A.W. Sythoff 1961), WOLFRUM, R.: ‘Internationalisation’ in: Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Vol. 2 (North Holland 1995) 1395-1398, WILDE, R.: ‘From Danzig to East Timor and Beyond: The Role of International Territorial Administration’ [2001] American Journal of International Law 583-606, KNOLL, B.: Legal status of territories subject to administration by international organisations (Cambridge University Press 2008), Carsten Stahn (n 28), BENZING, M.: ‘International Administration of Territories’ in: Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Vol. 4 (Oxford University Press 2010) 345-348. 3.

71 Louis Delbez (n 28) 10-16. 72 Carsten Stahn (n 28) 50-51. 73 Ibid , 64-65. 74 Ibid, 65.

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