A trenchant analysis of the League of Nations by one of the leading legal scholars of the day. Divided into two parts, the work begins with a general history of international relations since the Middle Ages. Other chapters examine earlier methods of international arbitration, the Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907 and preliminary developments in the early 1900s that would later influence the league's character. Additional topics include the Congress of Vienna and the Alabama case. The second part examines the establishment of the league, then proceeds to an article-by-article commentary of its charter (or Covenant). Pollock also includes an appendix containing the texts of source materials and early drafts of the charter. Sir Frederick Pollock [1845-1937] was one of the greatest British judges and legal scholars of his day. His treatises on contracts, jurisprudence and other subjects did much to clarify and systematize English law. Several of these were standard texts that went through several editions. He is also remembered for his collaboration with F.W. Maitland on The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I and his correspondence with Oliver Wendell Holmes, which was published posthumously as The Holmes-Pollock Letters. xv, 251 pp.