Structure and Function of the League of Nations

Body

Main Task

Membership

How it Works

Potential Problems

The Secretariat

• Kept records of League meetings
• Prepared reports for the different agencies

The Council (Executive Body, Decision-Making Part of the Organization)

• Sort out major disputes between members
• Discuss world problems and suggest solutions

• Permanent Members: Britain, France, Italy, Japan (1920)
• Temporary Members: Elected by the Assembly for 3-year periods. Between 4 and 9 depending on the time.

• Met around 5 times a year and in case of emergencies
• If the problem was not solved by discussing, there was a moral condemnation (decide aggressor and tell it to stop), economic and financial sanctions (refuse to trade with aggressor), military force (army of members used)

• Each permanent member had the power of veto, so they should all agree (decisions had to be unanimous)
• It hadn't an army of its own
• Slow for making decisions
• Since the USA was not part, trading sanctions were not effective (USA main trading country at that time)

The Assembly (Sort of World Parliament, Met in Geneva)

• Admitting new members
• Appointing temporary members of the Council
• Budget
• Ideas
• Discuss world problems and suggest solutions
• Recommend action to the Council

Every country of the League sent a representative to the Assembly

• Decisions had to be unanimous
• Met once a year
• Each country had a vote
• The Assembly discussed all kinds of world problems and suggested solutions

• Slow for making decisions as it met once a year
• Decisions had to be unanimous

The Permanent Court of International Justice (Based in The Hague in the Netherlands)

• Ruled on border disputes between two or more states
• It gave legal advice to the Assembly and Council

5 judges from the member countries

Governments could bring their disputes to court and the judges would decide who was right or wrong and how the dispute could be settled

• The court had no way of making sure that the countries followed the ruling
• It could only judge between appellant countries and only when they were both sides willingly put their case before the court.

The International Labor Organization (ILO)

Improve the working conditions of working people throughout the world

• Employers, governments, and workers' representatives
• Met once a year

• It collected statistics and information about working conditions and tried to persuade member countries to adopt suggestions
• Met once a year

• Met only once a year
• Lack of funds
• It could not do much more than "name and shame" countries or organizations that broke regulations or mistreated workers.