884.05/9
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Ethiopia (Southard)
Sir: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your despatch No. 241 of August 14, 1929, with reference to the proposed special court to be established in Ethiopia.
It was the opinion of the Department as evidenced by its telegram to you of August 10, 1 p.m. that the proposal for the new court as set out in the enclosure to your despatch No. 179 of April 10, 1929,6 lacked clarity. In Section 17 of the draft proposal, the translation of which was enclosed6 with your despatch above referred to, it is provided that in criminal cases the provisions of the Swiss Penal Code shall apply. In Section 27, under the general heading of crimes, it is provided that the law applied shall be that of the country of the accused. It was the opinion of the Department when reading this that there was some confusion with respect to the law to be applied. However, upon referring to the French text accompanying your despatch it was later ascertained that the word “delits” used in Section 17 should not be translated in English technically by the word “crimes” but rather by the word “misdemeanors”. If the distinction is clearly made in the proposed agreement between crimes in which the law of the country of the accused shall be applied and misdemeanors in which the provisions of the Swiss Civil Code are to be applied, there would seem to be no objection. However, in a copy of the Swiss Penal Code which is in the Department there appears to be no accurate classification of crimes and misdemeanors.
The rotating character of the Judges would seem to be a rather cumbersome system but if it is agreeable to the other Powers the Department would not of course object thereto.
There would also seem to be some lack of clarity in Section 18 which states that in matters of contraventions the Ethiopian laws and regulations which have been accepted by the representatives of the Powers shall be applicable to their subjects. The Department is not aware just how far this might become confused with the provisions of the [Page 989] Swiss Penal Code with respect to misdemeanors. This matter is further complicated by the fact that the definition of crimes, misdemeanors and contraventions, if defined by the Swiss Penal Code, may cut across the lines of the distinctions of crimes under American law. It was the idea of the Department that it would be clearer to provide that civil and commercial matters and matters of simple contravention of municipal regulations, et cetera, should be governed by the Egyptian Mixed Codes and that crimes in degrees above contraventions should be judged by the laws applicable in the defendant’s country.
In general the Department’s objections were not leveled against the scheme as a whole but it was thought that a more careful drafting of the provisions might obviate some of the possible confusion with respect to the operation in Ethiopia of laws concerning various degrees of crime.
The Department is entirely in accord with your suggestion that whatever may be suitable to the other Powers having interests in Ethiopia would be all that this Government could hope to obtain and in general would be satisfactory.
I am [etc.]