19291776 Club
Fifty-seven nations have now sworn off war; a Wisconsin senator asked who would enforce it
The treaty binding fifteen original signers to renounce war takes legal effect, with no army, court, or penalty behind it.
Nearly a year after diplomats gathered in Paris to sign it, the General Treaty for the Renunciation of War became binding on July 24, 1929. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand had built the pact from an idea two American lawyers, Salmon Levinson and James Shotwell, first pitched as a simple treaty between Washington and Paris. By the time it took effect, the pact had already been signed by 15 nations, with a total of 57 states joining as parties by the end of 1929, each declaring war "renounced as an instrument of national policy." The treaty named no enforcer and set no penalty for breaking it…
