¹ By an act of the colonial legislature, the official name of the country British Honduras was changed to Belize, which was the name of its capital city, on I June 1973. See Government of Belize, Ordinance No. 13 of 1973 (30 June 1973). In order to avoid the risk of historical anachronism, the old and new names have been used throughout the study wherever appropriate.Google Scholar

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³ Ibid.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Caiger, Stephen L., British Honduras: Past and Present (London, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1951), p. 17.Google Scholar

⁷ In 1524, Hernán Cortés made his memorable march almost in a straight line from Vera Cruz to Truxillo in order to punish the rebellious Cristobal de Olid who had proclaimed the independence of Spanish Honduras. Ibid., p. 18.

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¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Burdon, J. A., Archives of British Honduras (LondonSilton Praed, 1931), I, 48, as cited in Caiger, op. cit. supra, note 6 at p. 20.Google Scholar

¹³ The name buccaneer was derived from the ‘buccan’ meat or boucan which became their staple provender while away from home. Caiger, op. cit. supra, note 6 at p. 24.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Ibid. p. 31.

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²⁰ For the text of the treaty see British and Foreign State Papers (hereafter BFSP), I, 646; Martens, Recucil de Traités, 1, 31.Google Scholar

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³⁰ The United Provinces included all the states in the old Captaincy-General of Guatemala except the province of Chiapas which was given the option of uniting with Mexico.Google Scholar

³¹ These two districts - Peten and Verapaz - comprise the much disputed territory of Belize. Giles, Bryant Whitmore, ‘The ‘Belize” Question: A Problem of Anti-Colonialism in the New World’, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1956, p. 27.Google Scholar

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⁴⁰ In 1841 the British proclaimed the ‘Mosquito’ protectorate, and in 1849 they occupied Tigre Island in the Bay of Fonsec. See Kunz, Josef L., ‘Guatemala vs. Great Britain In Re Belise’, American fournal of International Law, 40 (1946), 384.Google Scholar

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⁵⁵ Under the supplementary convention of 5 Aug. 1863 Rritain agreed to pay Guatemala £50,000 in five instalments. The first payment was to follow immediately ott ratification. The remaining instalments would be paid when predetermined portions of the road were completed to the satisfaction of British engineers. Guatemala was to be held responsible for completing the road in four years and, thereafter, for keeping it in good condition. Giles, op. cit. supra, note 33 at p. 48.Google Scholar

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⁵⁹ A material breach consists in: ‘(a) a repudiation of the treaty not sanctioned by the present Convention; or (b) the violation of a provision essential to the accomplishment of the object or purpose of the treaty’. Ibid., para. 3.

⁶⁰ Writings on treaty interpretation are numerous. For example, Fairman, Charles, ‘The Interpretation of Treaties’, Grotius Transactions, 20 (1935), 123;Google ScholarGordon, , ‘The World Court and the Interpretation of Constitutive Treaties’, American Journal of International Law, 56 (1965), 794;CrossRefGoogle ScholarGottlieb, Gidon, ‘The Interpretation of Treaties by Tribunals’, Proceedings of the American Society of International Law (1969), p. 122;Google Scholar Leo Gross, ‘Treaty Interpretation: The Proper Role of an International Tribunal’, ibid., p. 108; Hogg, , ‘The International Court: Rules of Treaty Interpretation’, Minnesota Law Review, 43 (1959), 369;Google Scholar and ibid. XLIV, 5; Jacobs, Francis G., ‘Varieties of Approach to Treaty Interpretation: With Special Reference to the Draft Convention on the Law of Treaties before the Vienna Diplomatic Conference’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 18 (1969), 318;CrossRefGoogle ScholarFalk, Richard A., ‘On Treaty Interpretation and the New Haven Approach: Achievements and Prospects’, Virginia Journal of International Law, 8 (1968), 323;Google ScholarLauterpacht, H., Restrictive Interpretation and the Principle of Effectiveness in the Interpretation of Treaties’, British Yearbook of International Law, 26 (1949), 48;Google ScholarMcDougal, , Lasswell, and Miller, , The Interpretation of Agreements and World Public Order (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1961), pp. 432–89;Google ScholarSchachter, Oscar, Interpretation of Ambiguous Documents by international Administratwe Tribunals (1964);Google ScholarSchwarzenberger, G., ‘Myths and Realities of Treaty Interpretation’, Current Legal Problems, 22 (1969), 205;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSinclair, , ‘The Principles of Treaty Interpretation and Their Application by the English Courts’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 7 (1963), 508;CrossRefGoogle ScholarStone, Julius, ‘Fictional Elements in Treaty Interpretation — A Study in the International Judicial Process’, Sydney Law Review, (1955), 344;Google ScholarWhiteman, Marjorie M., Digest of International Law, (Washington: Government Printing Press, 1970), 353–409. While the controversies over the principles of treaty interpretation are still continuing, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969) has broadly accepted the textual approach and has adopted a set of three principles: (1) good faith; (2) ordinary meaning; and (3) context.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Emer de Vattel, Droit des Gens, Book II, sec. 263.Google Scholar

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⁷² Ibid., at p. 73. Sir H. Lauterpacht strongly advocated the thesis in the proposals he submitted to the Institute of International Law in 1950. See Annuaire de l'Institut de Droit International, XLVIII (1950), 371 et. seq.

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⁷⁴ The phrase ‘emergent purpose’ is used ‘to describe a still more extreme and dynamic form of the teleologicall approach, according to which the notion of object or purpose is itself not a fixed and static one, but is liable to change, or rather develop as experience is gained in the operation and working of the convention’.Google ScholarFitzmaurice, , ‘The Law and Procedure of the International Court of Justice 1951–1954: Treaty Interpretation of and Other Treaty Points’, British Yearbook of Internal Law, 33 (1957), 208.Google Scholar

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⁸¹ ‘Memorandum by Sir Charles Wyke for Mr Layard's use should any debate take place in the House of Commons relative to the grant of £50,000 demanded for the Construction of the Guatemala Road’, Foreign Office, n.d., F.O. 15/144A, ff. 157–61,Google Scholar cited by Clegern, Wayne M., ‘New Light on the Belize Dispute’, American Journal of International Law, 52 (1958), 295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁹⁰ Continuation of the White Book (Guatemala, 1941), First Series, III, 134–6.

⁹¹ ibid., pp. 138–9. The issues contained in the British proposal of compromis are as follows: I. Is there still any practical method by which the original obligations laid down in Article 7 can be effectively carried out? 2. If the answer to i is in the negative whether, and if so, to what extent, His Majesty's Government are responsible far failcre to carry out the mutual obligations in Article 7? 3. Having regard to any responsibility which may devolve on His Majesty's Government for failure to carry out the mutual obligations imposed by Article 7, by what method, applying all relevant legal and equitable principles, shall His Majestys Government now discharge their obligations under this Article?

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⁹⁵ If the members were unable to appoint a seventh member, they should request the Government of the United States to make such an appointment.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁰ Chap. XI of the United Nations Charter contains the declaration regarding non.self-governing territories; it imposes upon member nations the duty to develop self-government, ‘to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions’. Chap. XII deals with the international trusteeship system. One of the basic objectives of the system is ‘to promote the progressive development towards self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned’.Google Scholar

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