The 1937 International Sugar Agreement: Neo-Colonial Cuba and Economic Aspects of the League of Nations
Leiden Journal of International Law 89, Vol. 24, No. 4, 2011
24 Pages Posted: 5 Dec 2011 Last revised: 11 May 2014
Date Written: December 5, 2011
Abstract
To many in the West, the League of Nations was to establish political peace between nations. To the Cuban sugar-producing elite of the 1920s and 1930s, however, the League was an important socioeconomic institution used to augment many of Cuba’s first modern state institutions. This article explores how and why Cuban delegates were the principals behind the 1937 International Sugar Agreement – one of the League’s few operational economic treaties. This treaty sheds light onto how actors from the so-called industrial core and agricultural periphery used international law, institutions, and practice to negotiate and renegotiate their relationship with each other.
Keywords: International trade law, League of Nations, Cuba, periphery, sugar
JEL Classification: B15, B25, K33, O19, N56, Q17
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation