Hague conference. A conference of representatives of different States to consider the question of international peace and kindred subjects. So called because the place of meeting has been The Hague in South Holland (Netherlands). The first Hague Conference was the outcome of a circular letter of the Czar of Russia handed to all the foreign representatives accredited to the Court of St. Petersburg on the 24th August, 1898, and as a result the first Peace Conference met on 18th May, 1899. This conference brought about the creation of a Permanent Court of Arbitration, and each of the Powers signing the Hague Arbitration Convention could appoint four persons, who constituted a panel or general list of arbitrators from which as occasion arises selection can be made. The Hague Arbitration Court has dealt with complicated international disputes. A second Peace Conference met at the Hague on 18th June, 1907. Consult Higgins, Hague Conference.
Means the convention on the service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (The Hague, 15th November, 1965; (1969); Cmnd. 3986): RSC Ord. 11, r. 5(8). The convention does not invalidate any bilateral civil procedure convention already in force. The following countries are parties to the convention: Barbados, Belgium, Botswana, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Federal Republic of Germany (including West Berlin), Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, Malawi, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Swedan, the United Kingdom (including the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Antigua and all dependent territories except British Antarctic Territory and British Indian Ocean Territory) and the United States of America (Including Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands [Halsbury's Law of England, 4th Edn., Vol. 37, para 194, p. 147].