Programme for 1905 Peace Palace architectural competition cover

The Peace Palace Library is a collection of studies and

reference Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a '' name'' ...

s specializing in

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

. It is located in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and was established to support the Permanent Court of Justice.

Description

The library is one of the oldest libraries dedicated to international law. Its main objective is to service the institutions residing in the

Peace Palace , native_name_lang = , logo = , logo_size = , logo_alt = , logo_caption = , image = La haye palais paix jardin face.JPG , image_size = , image_alt = , image_caption = The Peace Palace, The Hague , map_type = , map_alt = , m ...

, including the International Court of Justice, the

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that aris ...

, and

The Hague Academy of International Law The Hague Academy of International Law (french: Académie de droit international de La Haye) is a center for high-level education in both public and private international law housed in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. Courses are taugh ...

. The library is open to all scholars and students of

History and relationship with the Carnegie Foundation

The Dutch Carnegie Foundation was created in 1903. It managed a financial donation by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

, which made the construction of the Peace Palace possible. The palace was completed in 1913, just before the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Now the Carnegie Foundation is subsidized by the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Since 1913 the foundation has remained the owner of the palace, and it still runs the Peace Palace Library. The Peace Palace is located at Carnegieplein, The Hague, Netherlands. The palace was built to accommodate the

, but Carnegie insisted that room be made available also for a legal library. The Peace Palace Library resided in the palace itself until 2007, when it moved to the new Academy and Library Building in the rear of the Peace Palace.

Collection

The Peace Palace Library has collected publications since 1913, and now offers over a million titles. A large part is searchable through the library's online catalogue, which classifies also book items. In its classification the library tries to remain faithful, as much as possible, to the ''Catalogue de la bibliothèque du Palais de la paix'', designed in 1916 by Elsa Oppenheim, daughter of the international lawyer Jacques Oppenheim. The library also uses a modern classification system with around 4,500 keywords.

International and national law

Most of the publications of the library are about public

, addressing topics such as the law of

state responsibility The laws of state responsibility are the principles governing when and how a state is held responsible for a breach of an international obligation. Rather than set forth any particular obligations, the rules of state responsibility determine, in ...

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

international humanitarian law International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict, is the law that regulates the conduct of war ('' jus in bello''). It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by pro ...

international criminal law International criminal law (ICL) is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetrat ...

, law of international organizations, and

European law European Union law is a system of rules operating within the member states of the European Union (EU). Since the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community following World War II, the EU has developed the aim to "promote peace, its valu ...

. The collection of the palace further includes

private international law Conflict of laws (also called private international law) is the set of rules or laws a jurisdiction applies to a case, transaction, or other occurrence that has connections to more than one jurisdiction. This body of law deals with three broad t ...

international commercial law International Commercial Law is a body of legal rules, conventions, treaties, domestic legislation and commercial customs or usages, that governs international commercial or business transactions. A transaction will qualify to be international if e ...

, international bankruptcy law, and international law of procedure. In 2012 the Peace Palace Library and the

Institute for Environmental Security The Institute for Environmental Security (IES) is an international non-profit non-governmental organisation established in 2002 in The Hague, Netherlands, with representatives in Brussels, London, Beirut, California, New York City, Toronto and Wa ...

began compiling a research database on the proposed Law of

Ecocide Ecocide is human impact on the environment causing mass destruction to that environment. Ten nations have codified ecocide as a crime. Activities that might constitute ecocide in these nations include substantially damaging or destroying ecos ...

. The library also collects books on topics of national law, such as

comparative law Comparative law is the study of differences and similarities between the law (legal systems) of different countries. More specifically, it involves the study of the different legal "systems" (or "families") in existence in the world, including the ...

, domestic public and

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fe ...

, criminal law and criminal procedure.

Special collections

The library houses a few special collections, of which the ''Grotius Collection'' and the ''Peace Movement collection'' are the most important. The library has the world's largest collection of works by Hugo Grotius, including a rare early edition of

De Iure Belli ac Pacis ''De iure belli ac pacis'' (English: ''On the Law of War and Peace'') is a 1625 book in Latin, written by Hugo Grotius and published in Paris, on the legal status of war. It is now regarded as a foundational work in international law. The work t ...

(''On the Law of War and Peace''), his most famous work written in 1625.

Publications

The library maintains the Peace Palace Library Blog, the news service International Law News, and the Peace Palace Library Research Guides, introducing researchers to various topics of international law.

Literature

* Duynstee, Bob; Meijer, Daan; Tilanus, Floris, et al., ''The Building of Peace: A hundred years of work on Peace through Law. The Peace Palace 1913-2013'', The Hague: Carnegie Foundation,

013 013 is a music venue in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The venue opened in 1998 and replaced the ''Noorderligt'', the ''Bat Cave'' and the ''MuziekKantenWinkel''. 013 is the largest popular music venue in the southern Netherlands. There are two concer ...

External links

Peace Palace Library website
{{Authority control 1913 establishments in the Netherlands Carnegie libraries in the Netherlands Law libraries Libraries in The Hague Library buildings completed in 1913