Article 30

The Commission considers its decisions in private and the proceedings remain secret.

All questions are decided by a majority of the members of the Commission.

If a member declines to vote, the fact must be recorded in the Minutes.

Article 31

The sittings of the Commission are not public, nor are the Minutes and documents connected with the inquiry published, except in virtue of a decision of the Commission taken with the consent of the parties.

Article 32

After the parties have presented all the explanations and evidence, and the witnesses have all been heard, the President declares the inquiry terminated, and the Commission adjourns to deliberate and to draw up its Report.

Article 33

The Report is signed by all the members of the Commission. If one of the members refuse to sign, the fact is mentioned but the validity of the Report is not affected.

Article 34

The Report of the Commission is read in open Court, the agents and counsel of the parties being present or duly summoned to attend.

A copy of the Report is furnished to each party.

Article 35

The Report of the Commission, being limited to a finding of fact, has in no way the character of an Arbitral Award. It leaves to the parties entire freedom as to the effect to be given to the finding.

Article 36

Each party pays its own expenses and an equal share of the expenses of the Commission.

PART IV - INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION

Chapter I - The System of Arbitration

Article 37

International arbitration has for its object the settlement of disputes between States by Judges of their own choice and on the basis of respect for law.

Recourse to arbitration implies an engagement to submit in good faith to the Award.

Article 38

In questions of a legal nature, and especially in the interpretation or application of International Conventions, arbitration is recognized by the Contracting Powers as the most equitable means of arranging disputes which diplomacy has failed to settle.

Consequently, it would be desirable that, in disputes regarding the above-mentioned questions, the Contracting Powers should, in that case, have recourse to arbitration, in so far as circumstances permit.

Article 39

The Arbitration Convention is concluded for questions already existing or for questions which may arise eventually.

It may embrace any dispute or only disputes of a certain category.

Article 40

Independently of general or particular Treaties expressly stipulating recourses to arbitration as obligatory on the Contracting Powers, the said Powers reserve to themselves the right of concluding new Agreements, general or particular, with a view of extending obligatory arbitration to all

cases which they may consider it possible to submit to such arbitration.

Chapter II- The Permanent Court of Arbitration

Article 41

With the object of facilitating an immediate recourse to arbitration for international differences, which it has not been possible to settle by diplomacy, the Contracting Powers undertake to maintain the Permanent Court of Arbitration, as established by the First Peace Conference, accessible at all times, and acting, in default of agreement to the contrary between the parties, in accordance with the rules of procedure inserted in the present Convention.

Article 42

The Permanent Court can deal with all arbitration cases, unless the parties agree to institute a special Tribunal.

Article 43

The seat of the Permanent Court is at The Hague.

An International Bureau serves as registry for the Court. It is the channel for communications relative to the meetings of the Court; it has the custody of the archives and conducts all the administrative business.

The Contracting Powers undertake to communicate to the Bureau, as soon as possible, a duly certified copy of any arbitration agreement arrived at between them and of any Award concerning them delivered by a special Tribunal.

They likewise undertake to communicate to the Bureau the laws regulations, and documents indicating the execution, in due course, of the Awards given by the Court.

Article 44

Each Contracting Power selects four persons at the most, of known competence in questions of International Law, of the

highest moral reputation, and disposed to accept the duties of Arbitrator.

The persons thus selected are inscribed as members of the Court, in a list which shall be notified to all the Contracting Powers by the Bureau.

Any alteration in the list of Arbitrators is brought by the Bureau to the knowledge of the Contracting Powers.

Two or more Powers may agree on the selection in common of one or more members.

The same person may be selected by different Powers.

The members of the Court are appointed for a term of six years. Their appointments can be renewed.

Should a member of the Court die or resign, the same procedure is followed in filling his place which was followed in appointing him. In this case the appointment is made for a fresh period of six years.

Article 45

When the Contracting Powers wish to have recourse to the Permanent Court for the settlement of a difference which has arisen between them, the Arbitrators called upon to form the Tribunal which shall decide this difference must be chosen from the general list of members of the Court.

Failing the composition of the Arbitration Tribunal by direct agreement between the parties, the following course shall be pursued:

Each party appoints two Arbitrators, of whom one only may belong to its own nation or be chosen from among the persons selected by it as members of the Permanent Court. These Arbitrators together choose an Umpire.

If the votes are equally divided, the choice of the Umpire is intrusted to a third Power, selected by agreement between the parties.

If an agreement is not arrived at on this subject each party selects a different Power, and the choice of the Umpire is made in concert by the Powers thus selected.

If, within two months' time, these two Powers cannot come

to an agreement, each of them presents two candidates taken from the list of members of the Permanent Court, exclusive of the members selected by the parties and not belonging to the nation of either of them. Which of the candidates thus presented shall be Umpire is determined by lot.

As soon as the Tribunal has been constituted, the parties notify to the Bureau their determination to have recourse to the Court, the text of their Compromis (see Article 52), and the names of the Arbitrators.

The Bureau communicates without delay to each Arbitrator the Compromis, and the names of the other members of the Tribunal.

The Tribunal assembles at the date fixed by the parties. The Bureau makes the necessary arrangements for the meeting. The members of the Tribunal, in the performance of their duties and when outside their own country, enjoy diplomatic privileges and immunities.

Article 47

The Bureau is authorized to place its office and staff at the disposal of the Contracting Powers for the use of any special body of Arbitrators.

The jurisdiction of the Permanent Court may, within the conditions laid down in the regulations, be extended to disputes between non-Contracting Powers or between Contracting Powers and non-Contracting Powers, if the parties are agreed to have recourse to the Court.

Article 48

The Contracting Powers consider it their duty, if an acute conflict threatens to arise between two or more of them, to remind such Powers that the Permanent Court is open to them.

Consequently, they declare that the fact of reminding the parties at variance of the provisions of the present Convention and the advice given to them, in the highest interests of peace,