contemporary times essay

Essay on Contemporary Issues

Students are often asked to write an essay on Contemporary Issues in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

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100 Words Essay on Contemporary Issues

What are contemporary issues.

Contemporary issues are problems or challenges that society is facing today. These issues can be local, national, or global. They often involve topics like the environment, technology, social issues, and politics. Understanding these issues can help us make better decisions for our future.

Environmental Issues

One of the biggest contemporary issues is environmental problems. These include climate change, pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Climate change is causing extreme weather events, like hurricanes and droughts. Pollution is harming our air, water, and land. Loss of biodiversity means many animal and plant species are disappearing.

Technological Issues

Technology is changing our lives in many ways. But it also brings new challenges. For example, cybercrime is a growing problem. This includes things like hacking and identity theft. There are also concerns about privacy and data security. We need to find ways to use technology safely and responsibly.

Social Issues

Social issues are another important contemporary issue. These include things like poverty, inequality, and discrimination. Many people lack access to basic needs like food, shelter, and healthcare. Inequality means some people have much more wealth and power than others. Discrimination is when people are treated unfairly because of their race, gender, age, or other characteristics.

Political Issues

250 words essay on contemporary issues, what are contemporary issues.

Contemporary issues are problems that we face in today’s world. These problems affect a lot of people, and they are often the subject of a lot of debate. They include things like climate change, inequality, and technology use.

Climate Change

Climate change is one of the most pressing contemporary issues. It refers to long-term changes in temperature and typical weather. Many scientists believe that human activities contribute to climate change. As a result, we see more extreme weather events, like hurricanes and droughts, that can harm people, animals, and our environment.

Inequality is another important contemporary issue. This can mean that people don’t have the same opportunities because of their race, gender, or how much money they have. It can affect many parts of life, like jobs, education, and health. Many people are working hard to fight against inequality and to ensure that everyone has the same opportunities.

Technology Use

Technology use is a newer contemporary issue. As more people use smartphones, tablets, and computers, we need to think about how this affects us. Some people worry that we spend too much time on these devices and not enough time talking to each other. There are also concerns about privacy and how data is used.

In conclusion, contemporary issues are problems that affect us all and are the subject of much debate. By understanding these issues and thinking about how we can solve them, we can make the world a better place. It’s important for everyone, including students, to learn about these issues and think about how they can help.

500 Words Essay on Contemporary Issues

Introduction to contemporary issues.

In the world of politics, there are many current issues. One of them is the fight for human rights. In many parts of the world, people are not treated equally. They do not have the same rights as others because of their race, religion, gender, or beliefs. This is a big problem that we need to solve.

Another political issue is corruption. Some people in power use their position for their own benefit, not for the good of the people. This is wrong and it harms society. We need to fight against corruption to make our world better.

Another social issue is discrimination. Some people are treated badly because they are different. This can be because of their skin color, their gender, their age, their religion, or other things. Discrimination is not fair and it hurts people. We need to respect and value everyone’s differences.

Our environment is facing many challenges. One of them is climate change. The world is getting warmer and this is causing problems like more extreme weather and rising sea levels. This is a big threat to our planet and we need to take action to stop it.

Technology is changing our lives in many ways. But it also brings some problems. One issue is privacy. With so much information online, it is hard to keep our personal data safe. We need to find ways to protect our privacy in the digital world.

Another technological issue is the digital divide. Not everyone has access to the internet and digital devices. This is not fair and it can make it harder for people to learn and work. We need to make sure that everyone can benefit from technology.

Contemporary issues are important topics that we need to understand and address. By learning about these issues, we can work together to solve them and make our world a better place. Remember, change starts with understanding and action.

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Modern Times Essays

A comparative analysis of mungo park’s and al-tunisi’s perceptions of the southern or african interior at the beginning of modern times., popular essay topics.

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Modern Times

Essay by brian eggert august 25, 2008.

Asymmetrical in form, he cuts a distinctive figure. His derby hat rests upon his head at an angle, its slant accentuated by the straightness of his suspenders and the forced lines of his tight-buttoned coat. Air fluffs his baggy pants, which seem to tighten like a balloon knot at his ankles, where his over-sized shoes oblige his feet to point outward, causing him to waddle when he walks. Balancing himself, he carries a bamboo cane that maintains his posture. He looks as though his once sweet life has passed. His garb is tattered, and his eyes are dark, but his mustache is short and trimmed, and his demeanor is always gentlemanly. And yet, his good manners are married with a liberated sense of freedom and severance, displacing him as an outsider reliant only on his most human instincts. His appearance reflects this station, giving him an uneven silhouette, albeit immediately familiar and identifiable. This is the Tramp. This is Charles Chaplin. But more than an iconographic image of early cinema magic, more than a comedic pantomime or sentimentalist director, Chaplin provoked thought with his tender comedies. His ingenious 1936 picture Modern Times confirms this by illustrating how the human condition struggles under the foot of industry and technological advancement. His foreword: “Modern Times.” A story of industry, of individual enterprise—humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness. Chaplin explores how the average person must not only fight for contentment, but in an industrial world, we must fight to preserve our individualism against the rising tide of so-called progress.

His message is conveyed through the universal rhetoric of comedy; invasive commentary is left on the wayside, which has left some critics to argue that Chaplin does not live up to his foreword’s promise. He satires the effects of industry according to how it fails humanist concerns. This is accomplished through the Tramp’s adventures, each of which could be whole two-reelers. Indeed, the film is episodic, taking the Tramp from place to place while maintaining a unifying theme of survival in the industrial, Depression-era world. To claim the picture lacks the emotional structure of Chaplin’s clear comedic melodramas ( City Lights , The Kid ), however, is an error. Accompanying our hero the Tramp is the “Gamin,” played by the delightful Paulette Goddard, Chaplin’s lover for a number of years until 1940. Gamin being the masculine French noun for mischievous or playful street urchin, Chaplin would later admit he should have called her gamine , the feminine form. Nevertheless, Goddard plays her as the perfect accompaniment to the established Tramp. Her first scene involves an act of Robin Hood-type bravery. She steals bananas for poor children, bringing them home to her family, which is soon broken apart by social services. She, too, becomes a vagabond, but eventually, she finds a kindred spirit in the Tramp. Together, the two are what Chaplin called “two playmates—partners in crime, comrades, babes in the woods.”

Chaplin believed machinery should benefit humanity, not remove humanity from the individual. When he returned to Hollywood after a year-long hiatus in 1932, he was taken aback by the “tyranny of the machine” and the dwindling spirit of Depression-era America. He blamed those who constructed machines for solely profit-making purposes rather than improving the lives of ordinary citizens. Chaplin would write, “Something is wrong. Things have been badly managed when five million men are out of work in the richest country in the world.” Chaplin questioned why massive factories produced a cheaper product faster if the process drives workers to the unemployment office. With so many struggling or out of work, who could afford the excess of consumer products being built? Since it was not a specific company (an obvious choice like Ford Motors) Chaplin sought to scrutinize, he avoids labeling the factory in his film. We learn neither the company’s name nor what they manufacture, as Chaplin prefers to target capitalism as a whole.

Despite Chaplin’s commentary, Modern Times is not a message film; rather, it is an exercise in human emotions in which the setting reflects the changing world. “The question is not whether the country is wet or dry,” Chaplin wrote, “but whether the country is starved or fed.” His concern is humanity’s place in a world where industrialization dehumanizes middle-class citizens. This is never more delightfully spelled-out than when the Tramp, having been driven mad by the monotony of tightening bolts, leaps into a port where his body moves effortlessly among the clockwork of gears inside. His body bends to fit every curvature, and he becomes a cog in the wheels of industry. When he emerges again on the factory floor, his madness sends him into a whimsical frolic, spraying oil in workers’ faces, twisting his wrenches on everything in sight that resembles a bolt. Outside the factory, the Tramp spots a woman with notably large breasts, punctuated by bolt-like buttons. He chases after her with a wild glint in his eye; his gag fulfills itself without the Tramp carrying out the suggested action.

Chaplin’s critics at the time saw the film as communistic as opposed to humanistic, the latter being the director’s true intention. Key scenes have been misread as serious commentary instead of comedic folly: The Tramp is institutionalized for his on-the-job breakdown and released shortly thereafter with a clean bill of mental health. Back on the street, he sees a rear distance flag fall off a truck. He picks it up and chases after, waving the flag to get the driver’s attention. Around the corner behind him, a communist rally turns and marches down the street, giving the impression that the Tramp leads the worker’s strike. However, Chaplin seems to preemptively say not to misconstrue Modern Times as a statement with this scene, but his critics—J. Edgar Hoover among them—came to that conclusion nonetheless. In the film, the Tramp is caught and thrown in jail for his assumed demonstration. Off-camera, Chaplin’s political reputation would come under an increasingly hot spotlight.

Indeed, Chaplin left the United States in 1952 after enduring years of persecution for his freethinking, free-voiced opinions about capitalists and politicians. His remaining years were spent at his home in Switzerland. An article in the April 1953 issue of Time wrote the following: Charlie Chaplin, British subject, surrendered his U.S. re-entry permit in Geneva and flew off to London. Chaplin had made his decision. The U.S. Immigration authorities had warned him that he would be subject to a screening exam, just as any other alien, when he returned. In his London hotel room he wrote his valedictory after 40 years of U.S. residence: “. . . Since the end of the last world war, I have been the object of lies and propaganda by powerful reactionary groups who, by their influence and by the aid of America’s yellow press, have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted. Under these conditions I find it virtually impossible to continue my motion-picture work, and I have therefore given up my residence in the United States.”

How strange that Modern Times , along with Chaplin’s himself, was met with harsh disapproval. His concerns were with the basic needs and desires of humanity. Chaplin grew up in poverty, so his films often feature the Tramp struggling to find something to eat or cope with the daily reality of hunger. After the Tramp earns a release from prison for thwarting an escape, he refuses to leave since it affords him free shelter and three meals a day. Outside, the unemployed starve. When he’s forced out, he happily buys an exorbitantly large meal with no intention of paying, if only to get back into prison. Later still, back again on the outside, the Tramp gets a job as a night watchman. Burglars arrive not to ransack the store, but to feed themselves. “We ain’t burglars—we’re hungry.” Food even occupies the Tramp’s daydreams—his fantasy home includes a fruit tree at the window and a milk-producing cow that comes when called.

Released by United Artists, which Chaplin originated along with Douglas Fairbanks, D. W. Griffith, and Mary Pickford in 1919, the film’s production resisted an all-out committal to sound because Chaplin was more certain of his success within the voiceless theatricality of silent-era filmmaking. Long after the major studios had opted for sound, Chaplin released City Lights  in 1931, earning rave reviews and box-office. Chaplin was committed to the idea that music provides background effects, while pantomime supplied the emotion. Dialogue was not necessary and would slow his process, thus hindering the film’s comedic effect. In interviews, he predicted sound pictures would last no more than a year; and a year later, when they did not disappear, he insisted that if talkies were to last, it would not be in his own pictures. During a five-year filmmaking hiatus, Chaplin fought with the reality that his pictures were no longer how films were made. And by the time production began on  Modern Times  in 1933, Chaplin had written a full script complete with dialogue, if only to keep up with his title’s setting.

Chaplin initially set out to make his first talkie, since most of his Hollywood contemporaries had made the leap years before. But had he followed through with his chatty script, Modern Times would not be the same film; it would fail in hypocrisy. Luckily, perhaps fearing modernization like the Tramp in his film, Chaplin resisted full-fledged sound and instead relied on synchronizing certain sound effects and voices. Whereas dialogue appears on infrequent title cards, the film features audible car horns, whistles, grinding gadgets, buzzers, and stomach grumblings. When Chaplin does use a voice, it comes from a disembodied source. Note how the factory owner speaks on a video screen, or how the salesman (“Your Speaker: The Mechanical Salesman”) arrives to demonstrate the aforementioned feeding machine and, rather than pitch the machine himself, he humorously plays the spiel on a phonograph. Modern Times critiques those who would so unreservedly jump into the new sound format.

To be sure, the sound effects are impersonal and communicated through filters, while their substance is often gibberish. The factory president who spends his time putting together puzzles in his office, for example, occasionally turns to his monitor and barks an order; we never see him actually speak in person, only on his screen, his head blown up to a massively authoritarian size. In the last hurrah, Chaplin finally allows his audience to hear the Tramp’s voice in a lovely take on the French tune “Titine,” sung at a posh soiree where the Tramp has secured a job as a performing waiter. The Tramp scrambles with his serving duties until he is forced to sing. Gamine quickly scribbles the lyrics onto his cuffs, but he loses them during his introductory dance routine. The result is an improvised refrain crooned with nonsensical pseudo-French words, illustrating the uselessness of specific dialogue in the presence of sound, but we fully understand the meaning of the song thanks to Chaplin’s pantomimic clarity.

Chaplin’s greatest achievements were as a visual performer, whether he was making sound films or silent. He followed Modern Times with The Great Dictator in 1940, and despite the inclusion of dialogue and lengthy political speeches, the scenes we remember are Chaplin’s pseudo-Hitler bouncing a balloon-globe into the air. Chaplin lived by the maxim that actions speak louder than words; specifically, he believed cinema an exclusively pantomimic artform—an opinion no doubt influenced by watching his mother perform in music halls throughout his childhood, and then advancing onto the stage himself at a young age. He told Time in a 1931 interview promoting City Lights , “Action is more generally understood than words. Like the Chinese symbolism it will mean different things according to its scenic connotation. Listen to a description of some unfamiliar object—an African warthog, for example. Then look at a picture of the animal and see how surprised you are.” Chaplin knew the Tramp’s charm rested in his wordless expression, as the character communicated emotions visually, therefore universally. Even though audiences had never heard the Tramp speak, and hearing his voice in Modern Times was revelatory, the film’s lasting achievements remain purely physical. Consider the impressive planning required to accomplish the scene where the Tramp roller-skates in an under-construction section on the fourth floor of the department store. Chaplin blindfolds himself as he glides about, moving gracefully and coming dangerously close to the edge of an open section of the floor. Certainly, this daring sequence holds significant artistic merit over any instance of sound by its choreography alone.

Not that Chaplin was the type of genius to have every little detail or gag or sequence preplanned in his head. His scenes and narratives developed from a process of improvisation. Scripts were a non-item. Whole scenes were described with a single sentence, such as “Charlie in jail,” and on the set, Chaplin and his troupe of performers would work out the scene. His genius was bringing these improvised scenes together into a cohesive story, but more than that, making his story as touching and joyful as they often were. The film’s last scene of the Tramp and the Gamine walking into the distance is bittersweet. Not merely because this was the sole instance of Chaplin ending a picture with the Tramp accompanied by a friend, but because it was the Tramp’s last appearance altogether. Modern Times was Chaplin’s last brilliant foray into that singular craft that made him a great artist: a pantomime. From then on, his pictures would be no less endearing or brilliantly conceived, but not the classic or iconographic (or soundless) Charlie that made him legendary.

Bibliography:

Chaplin, Charles. My Autobiography . Simon & Schuster, 1964.

Okuda, Ted; Maska, David. Charlie Chaplin at Keystone and Essanay: Dawn of the Tramp . iUniverse, 2005.

Robinson, David. Chaplin: His Life and Art . McGraw-Hill, second edition, 2001.

Schickel, Richard. The Essential Chaplin: Perspectives on the Life and Art of the Great Comedian . I.R. Dee, 2006.

Vance, Jeffrey. Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema . Harry N. Abrams, 2003.

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AS and A-level English Literature A

• Specification
• Planning resources
• Teaching resources
• Assessment resources
• Introduction
• Specification at a glance
• 3.1 Love through the ages
• 4.1 Love through the ages
• 4.2 Texts in shared contexts
• 4.3 Independent critical study: texts across time
• Scheme of assessment
• Non-exam assessment administration (A-level only)
• General administration

Option B: Modern times: literature from 1945 to the present day

Although not an exhaustive list of aspects of Modern times, areas that can usefully be explored include: wars and the legacy of wars; personal and social identity; changing morality and social structures; gender, class, race and ethnicity; political upheaval and change; resistance and rebellion; imperialism, post-imperialism and nationalism; engagement with the social, political, personal and literary issues which have helped to shape the latter half of the 20 th century and the early decades of the 21 st century.

Section A: Core set texts

Students study at least one of the six core set texts listed below:

Section B: Chosen comparative set texts

Students study two texts.These texts can be taken from the following list or from the core set text list. Any text from the core set text list used in the Section A response, however, cannot be used in Section B.

As with all the requirements around genre/dates in this specification, a text can fulfil more than one category. So, for example, The Help covers the requirement for a prose text and a text written post-2000.

We do not expect to change texts within the first five years of the specification. However, texts will be reviewed each year starting in September 2017 and we will give at least nine months’ notice of any changes prior to first teaching of a two year course. The criteria for changing texts will be where a text becomes unavailable or where we can no longer use it in a question paper. Notice of any change will be communicated via our examination bulletins and aqa.org.uk/english

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Modern Times

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• Library of Congress - Modern Times
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Modern Times , American silent film , released in 1936, that starred Charlie Chaplin as a man at odds with modern technology. It is regarded as the last great silent film.

The film , which was set during the Great Depression , centres on a luckless factory worker (played by Chaplin) who finds himself so unnerved by trying to cope with the modern equipment he must operate that he suffers a breakdown. After being institutionalized, he is freed, only to be mistaken for a communist agitator. He is arrested but released after preventing a jailbreak. He subsequently falls in love with a young girl ( Paulette Goddard ) whom he met when she was running from the police after stealing a loaf of bread. The factory worker and the girl have many adventures together as they evade the police and struggle for a better life. Eventually they escape for the open road.

Chaplin had not been seen on a theatre screen for five years when Modern Times premiered to great acclaim in 1936. Still stubbornly resisting work in “talkies,” he stood alone in his insistence upon preserving the silent film. As he did with City Lights (1931), Chaplin conceded to recording a music and sound effects track, but there would be no dialogue heard on-screen. (A reactionary in terms of filmmaking techniques, he once predicted sound films would be passé by 1932.)

(Read Lillian Gish’s 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.)

Modern Times is regarded as one of Chaplin’s most lighthearted films. There is certainly plenty of social criticism (the film highlights the dehumanizing impact of technology), but he plays the story mostly for laughs. The sight gag of Chaplin haplessly trying to keep pace with the assembly line in the factory is regarded as a classic comedy sequence.

The film also gave Goddard, who was living with Chaplin, her first starring role. The movie introduced Chaplin’s trademark song “Smile.”

• Studio: United Artists
• Director, producer, writer, and music: Charlie Chaplin
• Running time: 87 minutes
• Charlie Chaplin (A Factory Worker)
• Paulette Goddard (A Gamin)
• Henry Bergman (Café Proprietor)
• Stanley Sandford (Big Bill)
• Chester Conklin (Mechanic)

The Chronicle

Arts & Entertainment

Analyzing Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times”

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia commons

Ciara White , Co-Managing Editor/A&E Editor November 3, 2021

I recently watched Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times,” a 1936 comedy about the hardships that come with living in an industrialized world. The movie is entertaining, hilarious, and often considered one of Chaplin’s more critically acclaimed pieces.

Charlie Chaplin is an English actor who, in the early 1900s, rose to fame and popularity in the silent film industry. He became most recognizable through his iconic Tramp character, a social outcast with a kind heart. In “Modern Times,” the Tramp finds himself living amidst poor financial conditions heightened by massive unemployment.

The Tramp character is endearing. Although he makes countless mistakes—like accidentally sending a boat off to sea or getting swallowed by a factory machine—he adds a layer of social commentary.

Despite his good nature, the Tramp always seems to find himself in bad situations. For example, he gets arrested several times throughout this movie, once because he is suspected of being a communist, which is not the case. By having the Tramp be so genuine and likable, it suggests that he is not the problem. Society is.

Chaplin suggests that authority takes advantage of the working class and prioritizes efficiency over humanity.

When watching the movie, it is important to recognize the context of the time period. In 1936, Americans were dealing with the Great Depression and the effects of the country’s longest and worst economic downturn. Many Americans were poor and unemployed, and that is shown clearly throughout the movie.

“Modern Times” does not shy away from showing the horrors of American life at the time. Despite its comedic nature, the movie has a tragic core. Our main character works at a factory, whose unfair working conditions drive him to a nervous breakdown. Multiple characters–including the Tramp–steal to survive and strikes occur frequently.

This movie also came during the “red scare,” a time when Americans feared leftism and communism, or, quite frankly, anyone sympathetic to workers and labor.

While I liked the movie first because of its humor and incorporation of a favorite song, “Smile”—which I will touch on later—its value goes beyond that. Standing as a timeless social commentary, the movie gives its audience insight into the era’s worries and thoughts regarding employment and capitalism.

Those ideas can still apply today, and the message of “Modern Times” remains relevant.

Because of the stock market crash of 1929, the U.S. went from being an economic power to a floundering country unable to recover. Hoover was a dangerous laughingstock for his inability to help, and the Great Depression lasted well into FDR’s presidency. It was primarily World War II that allowed the United States reprieve and recovery.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also hit the American economy severely. With businesses shutting down and millions of people losing their jobs, the unemployment rate rocketed. People struggled to make ends meet, whereas the high, mighty corporations prospered, which is also true for the Great Depression.

A key difference, however, is the worker shortage the nation is experiencing today. Whereas people in the Great Depression wanted jobs—and were unable to get them—businesses today are struggling to find workers. While COVID-19 might be a primary factor in this, the issue is complex.

“Modern Times” speaks on that complexity.

One idea frequently discussed today is the exploitation of labor. Workers are unhappy with how they’re treated by management, and they will not force themselves to endure that.

Communism was attacked in the 1930s, but there was also skepticism with capitalism. If the Great Depression showed anything, it showed that capitalism can fail. It can also be a system that dehumanizes people.

The opening clip of the movie shows sheep running in a field, implying that workers are sheep. Chaplin shows how employment and capitalism value practicality over individuality of the workers, stripping employees of any personality or autonomy. Corporations and companies own the workers, and multiple shots suggest that work eats its workers, using and abusing them until they’re exhausted or driven mad.

Chaplin saw the assembly line as abusive, and the character he plays works in a factory. It makes me wonder what Chaplin would think of conditions today. Would he believe that they’re better–or worse?

These messages tend to be very dark and disheartening, but that is not how Charlie Chaplin ended the movie. Despite any statements he wanted to make about class differences or working conditions, his movie ends with hope. Through the use of music to set the mood, the Tramp character decides that no matter how bad his life is, he can still be happy because of the love he has for the people around him.

The music used became the song “Smile,” which is among my favorites. In 1976, it was a melody that acted as a motif, but it would later receive lyrics based on the inter-titles in the film. When the Tramp and his companion—called the Gamin—have just lost their jobs and are being chased by the police, they realize that they do not need material things to be happy. They walk into the horizon together. There is something powerful with that final image.

The lyrics say, “Smile, what’s the use of crying? / You’ll find that life is still worthwhile / if you just smile.”

Chaplin’s powerful idea has lasted 85 years.

Entertainment can stand as a mirror, allowing us to see into the attitudes and worries of any time period. While it can give us a better understanding of a time, it can also act as a timeless resource of self-reflection, where we can look upon our society today and see if things have improved.

Have things changed and changed enough? “Modern Times” still prompts us to ask the hard questions, but it also reminds us to smile at every dawn.

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“Modern Times” the Movie by Charlie Chaplin Essay (Movie Review)

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Introduction

Genre analysis, application, works cited.

When seeking a movie that is emblematic of comedy as a genre, one would inevitably mention a film directed by Chaplin, the Modern Times released in 1936 being the most common example. Modern Times was released and distributed by the United Artists Corporation, Chaplin being the main star of the film and impersonating an employee working at an assembly line (“Modern Times” par. 1). Although the film did not belong to any particular movement, it set the standard for slapstick comedy and, therefore, should be seen as a crucial art piece.

The plot of Modern Times is surprisingly complex for a comedy. The presence of numerous details and themes elevates the genre and the film to a new level, thus wetting the standards that other movies would try to achieve and supersede in the future. Modern Times starts with the lead character being employed as an assembly line worker. The lead character quickly loses track of his responsibilities and introduces confusion and havoc to his workplace (“Modern Times 1936”).

After being imprisoned and then placed in a hospital, he asks to be put in jail again, but with little success. Soon he comes across a little orphan, Ellen, who stole a loaf of bread. The Little Tramp assumes the responsibility for the theft, but a casual witness prevents him from doing so. Afterward, he rescues Ellen from imprisonment and is hired at a department store, where he meets three burglars (“Modern Times – Overview” par. 2).

They face numerous challenges as they try to find jobs and escape the police. After a moment of hesitating whether their efforts are worth anything, the Little Tramp and Ellen decide to start their lives anew, which their walk down the road at dawn symbolizes ( Modern Times ). Being a comedy and one of the pioneers of the genre, Modern Times might be seen merely as a combination of physical humor and an absurd premise, yet it also reflects socioeconomic anxieties of the time, thus becoming extraordinarily relatable to its viewers.

The tendency to see “Modern Times” as a staple of the comedy is a rather telling, albeit somewhat subjective, justification for defining the genre of the movie. On the one hand, Modern Times meets the criteria of both Bergson’s and Freud’s definition by representing “something formal under attack by something informal” (Bishop 23). Indeed, in “Modern Times,” Little Tramp challenges the status quo by bringing chaos to the factory, which, on a superficial level, can be viewed as the main source of comedy.

On the other hand, the underlying anxiety about the industrial revolution and its possible effects on economic and social issues, such as employment and dependency on automated technology, also becomes the emotional core of the movie (Fawell 21). Thus, “Modern Times” not only establishes the idea of comedy but also expands it, implying that it should not be restricted by its own rules. As a result, the dramatic nature of “Modern Times” also becomes apparent to viewers.

The presence of profound social, economic, and philosophical contemplations in the movie raises the question of whether Modern Times qualifies as a silent comedy or whether it should be seen as an example of silent drama. However, since the film has already been defined as comedic by the sources that have unquestionably high authority, one may instead posit where the boundary between comedy and drama lies. Indeed, the frames of comedy as a genre have been expanding over the decades of its evolution, incorporating new elements and ideas. For instance, Gies and Wall argue that comedy should have “socioeconomic valence” that challenges the audience and encourages social progress (6). Therefore, the genre of silent comedy, to which the movie belongs, is characterized by high levels of complexity.

The movie incorporates a range of techniques that allow it to stand out from the rest of the comedies. Specifically, one needs to mention the use of lighting and music as the elements that contribute to the creation of a humorous scenario. Similarly, the editing in the movie is quite impressive. The timing is perfect, with each punch line being delivered exactly at the moment when it is needed. As a result, Modern Times makes very efficient use of visual humor.

Modern Times warrants the title of a comedy primarily for the innovative use of physical humor and the creation of scenarios that are deemed as absurd to a viewer. For instance, the very idea that a factory worker would start a fight with a machine, let alone a rampage at the workplace, is unbelievable enough to make audiences laugh. The mise-en-scène involving the lead character’s outburst of anger at the factory is particularly worthy of attention as an example of stellar comedy.

In the specified scene, the comedic timing, the frontal space, and wide-key lighting also help juxtapose the well-functioning mechanism of the factory with the extraordinary behavior of the character. These components allow taking the level of absurdity in the movie to the maximum (Austerlitz 13). Arguably, these elements help make the scene both comedic and tragic due to the social context that it conveys.

The movie should also be credited for the excellent performance of every actor. The lead character steals the entire film whenever he appears on the screen. However, the rest of the cast also creates the required impression. Thus, they allow the audience to experience the movie fully. As the viewers see the exchange between Little Tramp and the burglar, they notice a combination of genuineness and absurdity of the situation (Flom 103). As a result, the scene makes viewers laugh due to the comic effect. Thus, with a cadence of perfectly natural and just as surreal scenes, Modern Times provides a unique experience. The actors perform masterfully, representing their characters naturally. Their every move elicits an emotional response from viewers.

Nonetheless, Modern Times does not fully meet the criteria for silent comedy by extending it and pushing the envelope regarding themes, and introducing a profound social commentary on the technological progress and its effects. While the specified aspect of the movie’s characteristics cannot technically be seen as a flaw, it does not allow viewing Modern Times solely as a comedic film intended to make the audiences laugh.

Therefore, Modern Times needs to be recognized as the film that challenged the audience’s perception of comedy. Little Tramp elevated the idea of comedy to the point where it elicited mixed emotions and made the lead character not only funny but also sympathetic and identifiable. As a result, the main character became relatable enough for the viewer to sympathize with his cause, which is ultimately the plight of the labor force to retain their employment. At the same time, Modern Times stayed amusing enough to be comedic.

Little Tramp is one of those movies every scene in which could be framed as a masterful picture. However, the scene that cements the key idea of the movie occurs at the very end. As Little Tramp and Ellen stand up, take each other by the hand, and start a new journey, the key philosophical theme of the film is revealed.

Little Tramp was one of the pioneers of comedy as a genre. It introduced its audience to the concept of silent comedy, combining social commentaries with visual and physical humor. Furthermore, the movie featured very compelling characters to whom audiences could relate. As a result, Little Tramp entered the pantheon of world-renowned movies that changed the landscape of cinema. Challenging and thought-provoking, the movie questioned the social issues of the time. Nevertheless, ti remains relatable due to its timeless characters and unforgettable humor.

Austerlitz, Saul. Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy . Cappella Books, 2011.

Bishop, Ryan. Comedy and Cultural Critique in American Film . Edinburgh University Press, 2014.

Gies, David T., and Cynthia Wall. The Eighteenth Centuries: Global Networks of Enlightenment . University of Virginia Press, 2018.

Fawell, John. The Essence of Chaplin: The Style, the Rhythm and the Grace of a Master. McFarland, 2014.

Flom, Eric. Chaplin in the Sound Era: An Analysis of the Seven Talkies . McFarland, 2015.

“Modern Times.” Catalog.AFI.com , n.d. Web.

Modern Times . Directed by Charlie Chaplin, performances by Charlei Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, and Henry Bergman, United Artists, 1936.

“Modern Times 1936.” IMBD.com , n.d. Web.

“Modern Times – Overview.” TCM.com . 2018.

• Chaplin’s “Modern Times” and 1986’s “The Fly”
• Policing in Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times
• Compar Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin
• “What Dreams May Come” the Drama by Vincent Ward: Can People Love Each Other More Than They Love God and Go From Heaven to Hell and Back?
• Social Transformation Through Art: "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" by Martin McDonagh
• “Tuesdays With Morrie” Film by Mick Jackson
• "Adam's Rib" the Film by George Cukor
• "Beauty and the Beast" by Bill Condon: A Picture That Becomes Reality
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Bibliography

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Fyodor Fyodorovich Martens (1845-1909) - a humanist of modern times

30-06-1996 article, international review of the red cross, no. 312, by vladimir pustogarov.

  Vladimir Vasilievich Pustogarov,   an international jurist and Doctor of Law, was Deputy Director of the Institute of State and Law, Academy of Sciences (USSR), and is currently Senior Researcher at the Institute of Law and Government of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is the author of the first monograph on F.F. Martens: "... With the olive branch of peace. F.F. Martens -jurist, diplomat and publicist" (Moscow 1993, 287 pages). In March 1996, he was awarded the Martens Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  

  Original: Russian.  

In the history of humankind, no matter how far back we look into the past, peaceful relations between people and nations have always been the ideal, and yet this history abounds in wars and bloodshed. The documentary evidence, oral tradition and the mute testimony of archaeological sites tell an incontrovertible tale of man's cruelty and violence against his fellow man. Nevertheless, manifestations of compassion, mercy and mutual aid have a no less ancient record. Peace and war, goodneighbourly attitudes and aggression, brutality and humanity exist side by side in the contemporary world as well.

The primary task of modern times is to break this vicious chain and to put an end to war and violence - a goal which is all the more vital because of its close links with the need to prevent the ecological disaster that threatens the whole planet and its inhabitants.

Recipes for the elimination of war are many and varied and are all worthy of attention, but at the same time no one can question the significance and fruitfulness of the noble idea of protecting the life, honour and dignity of human beings by legal means, with the ultimate aim of banishing war itself from international relations. In this connection, the importance of promoting legal awareness is primordial, since homo sapiens behaves in accordance with conceptions formed in his mind, and a legal norm can come into effect only when it becomes inherent in the way of thinking of a large enough number of people. The Ten Commandments of the Bible can be carved on stone tablets, cast in bronze or stamped on steel plates, but will nevertheless remain a dead letter unless they become part of the legal consciousness of society.

The evolution of the moral values that determine the concept of justice ( justitia ) entails changes in the law, including international law, and the crowning points of this development are marked by the names of outstanding lawyers. It is indeed regrettable that our cultural tradition - at least, since the fall of ancient Rome - has placed lawyers far from the vanguard, behind emperors and army commanders, men of letters and painters. The poems of the 12th century minnesinger Walter von der Vogelweide are still included in anthologies of German verse, Napoleon and Suvorov are still legendary heroes of the past and the canvases of Titian and Rubens are still regarded as masterpieces - but who remembers Eike von Räphoff, the first codifierof mediaeval law and the author of the rhymed Saxon Mirror ?

It was not until the 17th century that Hugo Grotius became widely known in Europe and more centuries passed before international developments in the last quarter of the 19th century brought forth a brilliant galaxy of international law experts from various countries who laid the foundations of contemporary international law.

One of the most outstanding representatives of this pleiad was Fyodor Fyodorovich Martens (1845-1909), a Russian jurist, diplomat and publicist whose influence on international law is appreciable to this day.

  Martens as an international lawyer  

F.F. Martens was born into a poor family in the town of Pernov (now Pärnu) of the Liefland province of the Russian Empire. At that time the province comprised the territory of modern Latvia and Estonia.

At the age of nine he lost both his parents and was sent to a Lutheran orphanage in St. Petersburg, where he successfully completed the full course of studies at a German high school and in 1863 entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University.

Very little is known of his childhood and youth. No doubt they were not easy. He himself did not like to recall those years, although sometimes the accumulated bitterness would suddenly burst forth, and he would write in his diary such entries as this one on the occasion of his 60th birthday: " I have never had a worse day in my life, even if I think back to my childhood years " . [1 ] Apparently the hardships of his childhood had not faded from his memory...

At the university the young man was a brilliant student and his gifts caught the attention of I.I. Ivanovsky, the faculty dean, whose support enabled him to continue his studies at the university and to obtain the degree of professor of international law.

Martens soon defended his master's thesis On the law of private property in time of war and was sent on a study tour abroad, attending lectures at the universities of Vienna, Heidelberg and Leipzig. As may be seen from his later works, he was mainly influenced by A.D. Gradovsky, professor of St. Petersburg University, who advocated the ideas of the rights of the individual and West European constitutionalism, by L. von Stein, professor at the University of Vienna, well known for his works on management and " social intercommunication " across State boundaries, and by J.K. Bluntschli, professor at Heidelberg University, who published The Modern International Law of Civilized States in the form of a code.

His growing knowledge of Russian and West European schools of thought helped to broaden his outlook and to develop his spirit of innovation and independent thinking. When delivering his first lecture to students in January 1871, he defiedtradition by not continuing the course begun by his predecessor, but by criticizing the current state of the science of international law, on the grounds that it was not yet based on the study of material factors, was not trying to identify the objective laws of development and " made no attempt to investigate the internal laws of communication between States and of international relations " . Martens believed that it was time to " start looking into the laws of the historical development of nations in their international life " . [2 ] It was indeed bold of the young academic to claim to have created his own school of thought in international law.

Martens was above all opposed to any concept implying that law was based on force. He regarded such views as unworthy of human beings and pernicious for international relations, pointing out that in such cases even prominent experts were confusing law enforcement procedures with law itself, for the fact that law was safeguarde d by force did not mean that force should serve as the basis for law. According to Martens, the inviolability of human life, honour and dignity is recognized to be the right of everyone, not because it is protected by criminal law, but because everyone has an inalienable right to life, honour and dignity.

With regard to the driving force of international law, Martens saw it in the development of international relations, reflecting the nations'need to communicate among themselves: " ubi societas ibi jus est " ( " where there is communication there is law " ). He wrote: " The idea of international communication under which every independent State is an organic part of a single whole, linked with the other States by their common interests and rights, should serve as the basis for a scientific system of contemporary international law " .[3 ]

The real needs of States are constituted by international relations, which in turn are expressed in international law. At the same time, international law is not merely a device for recording the formation of relations between States, but is also a manifestation of the moral values of the human race.

Although a down-to-earth realist, Martens stressed the " ideal power of law " , the power of the ideals of justice and humanity, and as a jurist and a humanist, he saw the basis for an equitable legal order, not in State sovereignty, " political balance " or nationalistic ideas, but solely in law: it is only law and the absolute rule of law that can ever serve as a basis for a properly organized life, free from war and violence.

In his analysis of the history of antiquity, feudalism and the modern era, Martens recorded a steady shift in the correlation between law and force in favour of law. He believed that " in the area of international relations, too, the time will come wh en the great law of social life will finally prevail, and each nation will exist for the world and the world for each nation " . [4 ]

Martens'sublime humanism and foresight caused him to situate the human being at the centre of international life. He concludes that there is but one law running through the entire history of nations, namely " the principle of respect for the human person " .[5 ]

It is to his credit that he placed the human being at the centre of international law in spite of the views prevailing at the time. Martens considered protection of the rights, interests and property of a human being to be the substance of the entire system of international relations and regarded respect for human rights as a yardstick of the degree of civilization of States and international relations. " It is our conviction, " he wrote, " that once the human being as such is recognized by the State to be the source of civil and political rights, international life will reach a high degree of development, law and order. And the reverse is also true - international relations can neither be developed nor established on a firm basis with a State in which the human person enjoys no rights and is oppressed " . [6 ] The wording of Martens'credo is outstandingly clear: " Protection of the individual is the ultimate purpose of the State and goal of international relations " [7 ] - an idea and formulation worthy of the UN Charter or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights!

Martens'humanism was incompatible with the spirit of militarism even that emanating from his own homeland. The essay he contributed to a St. Petersburg journal in connection with the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the University of Bern (Switzerland), to which he was invited as guest of honour, is noteworthy in this respect. Martens was fascinated by the fact that a country as small as Switzerlandhad seven universities, that the university jubilee was being celebrated as a public holiday by the town and the whole canton of Bern and that this little canton maintained a university and provided for it better than Russia did for her institutions. " For us Russians, " he wrote, " the history of this small cantonal University of Bern is enlightening at least by familiarizing us with the experiences and vicissitudes of cultural life " . To this he added: " The Swiss realized long ago what constitutes the true, essential and unshakeable might of every nation. It is not millions of bayonets, an immense national territory or a vast population, but it is the power before which everyone must bow and which triumphs over everything - the power of superior culture, intellect and talent " . [8 ]

Martens'scholarly outlook determined his practical activities as both a lawyer and a diplomat.

  Martens as a diplomat  

Unlike pacifists and representatives of similar trends, Martens considered the idea of the abolition of war in the immediate or more distant future to be purely utopian. In his opinion, the only solution that was compatible with the humane goals of law was to limit the horrors of war by means of clearly defined rules accepted by all States.

It is worth mentioning that in Martens'time an anti-war offensive was being launched from many quarters and along different lines. The number of peace associations was growing. After emerging in the USA and Great Britain, they soon sprang up in a considerable number of countries. By 1895 there were 125 of them, including 36 in Great Britain, 26 in Germany, 14 in France, 14 in Italy, 9 in Switzerland and so forth, and at the beginning of the 20th century Russia was the only European country in which there were none. In Brussels in 1848, the peace associations held their first co ngress, which then became an annual event. Their activities influenced world public opinion by decrying the glorification of war, and the Interparliamentary Conferences held regularly after the first such conference in Paris in 1899 had a similar effect. [9 ]

The idea of joining the civilized States in a single union within which all conflicts would be resolved peacefully was quite popular at the time. One of its most ardent supporters was L.A. Kamarovsky (1846-1909), a Russian jurist best known as the initiator of a permanent international court, who suggested as a first step the establishment of a union of European and American States along the lines of the USA,10 in the belief that strengthening the practice of federalism was important for promoting the idea of peace. [11 ]

The demand for the reduction of armaments and - in some circles - the concept of universal disarmament received relatively wide support among the general public.

The development and production of increasingly devastating weapons triggered a counterreaction, and in 1868, at the initiative of Russia, a number of States signed the St. Petersburg Declaration, renouncing the use, in time of war at sea or on land, " of any projectile of a weight below 400 grammes which is either explosive or charged with fulminating or inflammable substances " . [12 ] That provision was motivated by the desire to avoid excessive human suffering.

Attention is usually concentrated on this particular rule, whereas the Declaration of 1868 contains a number of other important principles, for instance, that " the only legitimate object which States should endeavour to accomplish during war is to weaken the military forces of the enemy " . On the basis of the laws of humanity, the Declaration banned all arms, the use of which would exceed that object of war and called for control to be exercised over future technical improvements of armament s.

Another fast-growing trend in mitigating the horrors of war was towards providing care for the wounded, prisoners of war and civilians. This work received a strong impetus from the activities of Henry Dunant, a young Swiss who had witnessed the aftermath of the bloody battle of Solferino (during the Franco-Austro-Italian War of 1859) and had written a book about that experience: " A Memory of Solferino " . At the end of his book, Dunant proposed that every country should set up a society to care for the wounded and that an international congress should be held on the subject. The proposals fell on fertile soil: the first meeting of the International Committee for Aid to Wounded Soldiers was held in 1863, and 1864saw the adoption of the (Geneva) Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field. Societies for relief to the wounded began to emerge in various countries, and in 1880 Dunant's original Committee became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).  

The picture outlined above should not, however, give a false impression of States'willingness to impose restrictions on armaments and means of warfare or to introduce more humane rules for the conduct of war. At that stage, a new legal awareness was only putting out its first shoots and the law-making process was in its early beginnings. As a matter of fact, Martens himself was soon to face some harsh realities.

  Martens and the laws of war  

With the backing of D.A. Miliutin, the Defence Minister who was close to the Tsar, Martens prepared a draft convention on the laws and customs of war, an instrument which was intended to establish universal rules of w arfare for all belligerent States amd included regulations for the treatment of the civilian population and of non-combatants in general. The rules were designed to mitigate the horrors of war, in accordance with the legal awareness and humanism that were growing among the general public.

At the initiative of Russia, Martens'draft was submitted to the International Conference convened in Brussels in 1874, but that assembly failed to adopt the convention. Although the text itself did not meet with any objection, the idea of restricting war by international rules came up against widespread resistance. The draft was finally adopted as a declaration of the Conference and did not become a convention until two decades later.

The results of the Brussels Conference did not discourage Martens, who defended his views in the press. In 1879, he published a voluminous work entitled The Eastern War and the Brussels Conference in which he strongly castigated the apologists of war. Of great significance was his two-volume course The Contemporary International Law of Civilized Nations, published in 1881-1882, which ran into five editions and continued to be the most authoritative textbook in Russian universities for the next 30 years. It was soon translated into seven languages and was used by various foreign universities.

The publication of the Collection of Treaties and Conventions Concluded by Russia with Foreign States brought him world-wide fame. Its 15 bulky volumes, based on materials in the Russian archives, were issued in 1874-1909. By prefacing each treaty and convention with an essay on its history, Martens turned the collection into " a historical and diplomatic encyclopaedia of Russia's foreign relations " . [13 ]

Martens was an active member of th e Ghent Institute of International Law, participating, inter alia, in its work on documents relating to Red Cross activities. As from 1884, Martens represented Russia at all Red Cross conferences and was particularly active in the review of the initial Red Cross Convention at the Geneva Conference of 1906. In 1902, F.F. Martens received the Red Cross Distinguished Service Award for his services to society.

Martens'authoritative status gradually gained international recognition. During his 40 years of service in the Russian Ministry ofForeign Affairs, he represented Russia at nearly all the international conferences in which it participated. He thus took an active part in preparing the documents for the Berlin Conference on Africa (November 1884-February 1885) and the Brussels Conference on African Affairs (1889-1890), and also in drafting the main provisions of the " General Act on international measures for combating the maritime traffic in negroes " . In 1893, Martens was a delegate to the First Conference on International Private Law and later represented Russia at the Second, Third and Fourth Conferences (1904). He acted as arbitrator in international disputes on a number of occasions, the best-known being his arbitration in the dispute between Great Britain and Holland in 1892: not only did his award satisfy both parties, but he also laid down the principle of a captain's jurisdiction, under the laws of the vessel's flag, for offences committed on the high seas. In 1899, as an umpire of the court of arbitration, Martens examined the territorial dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela (whose interests were represented by the USA). The demarcation line drawn by the court along the Orinoco river basin has ever since constituted the frontier between Venezuela and Guyana. Martens was also a member of the Russian delegation which signed the peace treaty with Japan in Portsmouth (USA) in 1905.

  The Hague Peace Conferences  

The hour of Martens'triumph as a jurist and a diplomat came with the organization and conduct of the First World Peace Conference in The Hague in 1899.

We now know from archival documents that it was none other than Martens who drew up the programme of the Conference. On 12 August 1898, M.N. Muravyov, the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, circulated a note among the foreign envoys in St. Petersburg proposing that an international conference be convened with a view to ensuring " genuine peace and primarily putting an end to the progressive development of armaments " . The note, drawn up without any prior consultations, came as a complete surprise to foreign States and was not substantiated by any preliminary drafts or well-considered plans in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself. It was, so to speak, " a bare idea " , intended to produce a general impact.

As it happened, the proposal to convene a disarmament conference did meet with an enthusiastic response among certain circles in several countries, and out of consideration for those feelings the Governments of Great Britain, France, Germany and other countries supported the Russian initiative. It was nevertheless clear to Martens who was following the foreign press coverage of the issue and to the senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that none of the Powers were prepared to disarm. Martens was to learn this from his personal experience: when drawing up the conference programme, he quite reasonably assumed that Russia as the initiator should set a tangible, even if minor, example of disarmament, and therefore proposed to declare at the conference that in the year of its holding Russia would reduce the number of its army recruits during that year. Tsar Nicholas II, however, commented as follows on the draft programme: " I find it difficult to agree to a decrease in the strength of the Russian army " .[14 ]

Having obtained a positive public response and seeing that any form of disarmament was utopian, the senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were inclined to give the plan for the conference a quiet burial. Minister M.N.Muravyov, for instance, suggested that a meeting of the ambassadors accredited to St. Petersburg, which might come up with some kind of a declaration, should be substituted for the conference.

Martens, who had shouldered the burden of preparations for the conference, was of a different opinion. Although by now he did not believe in the feasibility of any reduction of armaments, he found a way out by transforming the conference on disarmament into the first peace conference.

The programme drawn up by Martens which later served as a basis for the work of the 1899 Hague Conference provided that:

1. With regard to disarmament, a declaration should be adopted to the effect that the States parties " in the near future undertake not to resort to military force for the protection of their rights and legal interests without prior endeavours to seek good offices, mediation or arbitration proceedings " .

In addition to the above it was proposed to discuss some measures for freezing armaments.

2. Another aspect of the Conference's work concerned the establishment of a permanent court of international arbitration.

3. The third aspect of its work was the adoption of a convention on the laws and customs of war.[15 ]

The conference programme suggested by Martens not only brought the disarmament initiative of Russian diplomacy out of a deadlock, but also created a practicable basis for measures aimed at strengthening peaceful relations between nations and mitigating the horrors of war.

When the First Hague Conference opened on 6 May 1899, bringing together the representatives of 27 States (21 European countries, the USA, Mexico, China, Japan, Persia and Siam), Martens was elected Chairman of the Third Commission, dealing with the laws and customs of war.

Although the relevant draft convention had been submitted as early as 1874 in Brussels, the conciliation process in the Third Commission ran into a number of difficulties. At one point, a situation arose which Martens described as " critical " : a group of small countries headed by Belgium opposed the very principle of the rights and duties of armies of occupation, and demanded an unlimited right of resistance for the population of occupied territories. A solution was found in the form of the so-called " Martens clause " , the reservation that he proposed to insert in the preamble to the convention, reading as follows: " ... in cases not included in the Regulations adopted by them ( the States Parties - V.P.), the inhabitants and the belligerents remain under the protection and rule of the principles of the law of nations, as they result from the usages established among civilized peoples, from the laws of humanity, and the dictates of the public conscience " .[16 ] Martens'proposal was greeted by applause and the whole convention was adopted unanimously.

In addition to presiding over the Third Commission, Martens repeatedly addressed the plenary meetings of the Conference and spoke in its Second Commission. His merits were so widely recognized that he came to be called " the life and soul of the Conference " .

As a result of the discussions, the First Peace Conference adopted a resolution on the desirability of restricting military budgets, the Convention Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and the Convention for the Pacific Settl ement of International Disputes, which provided in particular for the establishment of a Permanent Court of Arbitration.

The significance of the Conventions signed at the First Peace Conference and the impact they had and still have on the development of contemporary international law do not require any further comment. Individual clauses of the Hague Conventions (including those signed in 1907) have given rise to the development of separate branches of law which have become so topical today. These Conventions are a memorial to F.F. Martens, that outstanding Russian jurist, diplomat and humanitarian. In evaluating Martens'contribution to the overall results of the Conference, Jean Pictet, a well-known expert on international humanitarian law, wrote that the Martens clause had been brought into existence by its author's " genius " . [17 ] It is noteworthy that the full text of a slightly amended version of the Martens clause was included in Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. [18 ]

The articles of the Hague Convention on the Laws and Customs of War look strange to the modern reader. " Prisoners of war may be set at liberty on parole... " (Article 10); it is forbidden " to kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army " , " to declare that no quarter will be given " (Article 23 (a) and (d)); " the pillage of a town or place, even when taken by assault, is prohibited " (Article 28); or (for occupied territories) " pillage is formally forbidden " (Article 47). But all this was a reflection of the contemporary realities of war, and it cannot be said that the provisions of the Hague Conventions are always observed in present-day conflicts. In any case, their humanitarian significance and their effect on legal awareness can hardly be overestimated.

  The Martens clause  

The Second World Peace Conference met in The Hague on 15 June 1907 with 44 countries participating. It was practically a world assembly, or " an international parliament " as Martens put it.

Martens again had to take a most active part in preparing the Conference programme, in its proceedings and in bringing about the adoption of agreed texts of the conventions. On the one hand, the organizational work was considerably facilitated by the fact that the way had been paved by the 1899 Conference, but on the other hand a substantial number of complex questions, left unsettled because of their difficulty, had accumulated for consideration by the Second Conference. In addition, that work had to be carried out in an atmosphere of deteriorating relations between the world Powers and of the formation of military blocs in preparation for a new war. The naval rivalry between Great Britain and Germany was particularly acute.

In the light of this new situation, the Tsar's Government decided to send Martens on a tour round the European capitals with a view to sounding out opinions and holding consultations.

In Berlin he met Kaiser Wilhelm II, in Paris - President Fallières, in London - Lord Grey, the Foreign Secretary, and King Edward VII, in The Hague - the whole royal family, in Italy - King Victor Emmanuel III and in Vienna the Minister of Foreign Affairs von Ehrental and the Emperor Franz Josef. There were also numerous meetings with senior government officials and public figures. This tour by " Professor Martens " created quite a sensation and helped to promote the preparations for the Conference, although it naturally could not smooth over the existing Anglo-German and Franco-German differences. Wilhelm II, in particular, strongly objected to any discussion of the British proposal for the reduction of armaments, threatening to disrupt the conference if such a discussion were to be held. Tsar Nicholas II was greatly influenced by Wilhelm II's position on this issue and Martens had to prove to him the " harmlessness " of the British proposal. The Tsar continued to vacillate, however, and was even thinking of cancelling the Conference altogether.

Those were the circumstances in which the Second Peace Conference, attended by delegates from 44 countries, started its work in The Hague on 15 June 1907. It should be noted in this connection that in Martens'theoretical course congresses of States, regularly convened at a world-wide level, were assigned the role of legislative bodies for the international community, as it was believed at the time that the prevailing trend was towards strengthening that community on the basis of law.

Four commissions were set up at the Conference, and Martens was elected Chairman of the Fourth, or " naval " , Commission, which he called " the most difficult " , since the Anglo-German rivalry was most clearly manifested there and Martens often had to settle differencesbetween the protagonists. The Fourth Commission was nevertheless the first to complete its work, thanks to Martens'experience.

The Second Hague Conference ultimately adopted a Final Act to which 13 Conventions and a Declaration were annexed. The States parties agreed to convene the Third World Peace Conference after a specified interval.

The 1907 Conference revised and further developed a number of the provisions adopted in 1899, with the result that the documents of the First Conference are usually quoted in the form in which they were amended in 1907. The First Peace Conference has in a way been absorbed by its successor, and when reference is made to a Hague Convention it is an instrument of the 1907 Conference that is usually implied. The oblivion into which the First Peace Conference has fallen is politically and legally unjustified, and it would be more equitable to consider both conferences from the point of view of their interrelationship. Russia's initiative to mark the centenary of the 1899 Conference by convening the Third World Peace Conference is therefore worthy of support.

As we have already mentioned, the anti-war offensive was launched from different directions and took various forms, but practical realities soon channelled these activities into two trends which, although interrelated, are legally and structurally quite distinct. One trend focused on the protection of war victims - the wounded, prisoners of war, internees and other non-combatants; the beginning of the codification process in this area being connected with the Geneva Conference of 1864 and the activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross. This trend is referred to in the literature as " the Law of Geneva " , while the other trend, focused on the rules of the conduct of war and constraints on the means of warfare and hence mainly concerned with combatants, has become known as " the Law of The Hague " .

Martens himself personified the unity and organic interrelationship of " the Law of Geneva " and " the Law of The Hague " . He took an active part in the development of " the Law of Geneva " and at the 1899 Hague Conference worked successfully for the adoption of a number of important provisions on non-combatants, primarily defining the status of prisoners of war, the wounded and the shipwrecked during hostilities at sea, as well as the status of civilians in occupied territories. Those provisions were subsequently incorporated in the Geneva Conventions of 1929 and 1949.

  Martens and human rights  

Martens has already been assigned his rightful place among the creators of international humanitarian law with respect to its " Law of Geneva " and " Law of the Hague " branches, but now we can include him among those who laid the foundations of another branch, that of the protection of fundamental human rights. Its codification is considered to start with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, and which some jurists distinguish as " the Law of New York " .19 It was Martens who in his works and lawmaking activities placed the human person at the centre of international life and recognized the protection of the human being to be the ultimate objective of international law.

Fedor Fedorovich Martens died in 1909 and was buried in St. Petersburg.

  Notes :  

1. Archives of Russian Foreign Policy (ARFP), Inventory 787, File 9, Storage unit 6, pp. 73-74.

2. F.F. Martens, On the goals of contemporary international law, St. Petersburg, 1871 (in Russian).

3. F.F. Martens, The contemporary international law of civilized nations , vol. 1, St. Petersburg, 1882, p. 178 (in Russian).

4. F.F. Martens, The Eastern War and the Brussels Conference, St. Petersburg, 1879, p. 45 (in Russian).

5. F.F. Martens, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 23-34.

6. Idem , pp. 110-129.

7. Idem.  

8. " The European Herald " , St. Petersburg, 1884, No. 10, pp. 852-858 (in Russian).

9. L.A. Kamarovsky, The success of the idea of peace , Moscow, 1898, pp. 89-179 (in Russian).

10. L.A. Kamarovsky, On an international court, Moscow, 1881, pp. 483-501 (in Russian).

11. L.A. Kamarovsky, The question of an international organization. The United States of Europe . Moscow, 1905 (in Russian).

12. Declaration renouncing the use, in time of war, of explosive projectiles under 400 grammes weight, St. Petersburg 1868 ( " Declaration of St. Petersburg " ).

13. M.A. Taube, F.F. Martens (1845-1909) - An obituary , St. Petersburg, 1909, p. 9 (in Russian). The volumes were published simultaneously in Russian and French.

14. ARFP, Inventory 470, file 63, Ë.450.

15. ARFP, Inventory 787, file 9, storage unit 4, pp. 80-86.

16. As adopted by Convention (IV) Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, of 18 October 1907, 8th preambular paragraph.

17. J. Pictet, Development and Principles of International Humanitarian Law, Dordrecht/Boston/Lancaster/Geneva, 1985, p. 60.

18. Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), of 8 June 1977, Article 1, par. 2.

19. F. Kalshoven, Constraints on the waging of war, ICRC, Geneva, 1987, pp. 7-23.

Related sections

• History of the ICRC

Theocracy in Practice: Historical and Modern Examples

This essay about theocracy explores both historical and modern examples of governments where religious leaders hold political power. It examines ancient Egypt, where pharaohs ruled as divine leaders, and the Papal States, governed by the Pope until 1870. In modern times, Iran and Saudi Arabia are highlighted as theocratic states, with Iran’s political system combining democratic elements with Islamic principles under the Supreme Leader, and Saudi Arabia governed by a monarchy with laws based on Sunni Islam. The essay also discusses the Vatican City, a unique modern theocracy led by the Pope. These examples illustrate how religious authority influences governance and society.

How it works

Theocracy, an arrangement of governance wherein ecclesiastical figures wield authority over political jurisdiction and the legal system of the state is grounded in divine law, has manifested in myriad guises across epochs and persists in contemporary times. This governance archetype intertwines matters of faith and governance, often with the objective of fashioning a society reflective of religious precepts and values. Delving into the concept of theocracy through historical and modern instances affords insight into its ramifications on societal frameworks and governmental paradigms.

Ancient Egypt stands as one of the most conspicuous historical embodiments of theocratic rule. The pharaohs were venerated as deific or semi-divine entities who ruled as both secular and ecclesiastical overseers. This duality conferred upon them absolute dominion, warranted by their perceived divine linkage. The authority of the pharaohs was undergirded by religious rites and the erection of opulent temples and monuments, which served as tangible manifestations of their divine mandate. This theocratic configuration served to uphold societal equilibrium and legitimize the centralized dominion exercised by the pharaohs over Egyptian civilization.

Another salient historical illustration is the Papal States, which endured from the 8th century until 1870. These territorial realms within the Italian Peninsula were directly administered by the Pope, the supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pontiff wielded both ecclesiastical and temporal sway, presiding over mundane affairs and exerting substantial influence over European geopolitics. The Papal States exemplify the extension of religious hegemony into the realm of politics, sculpting policies and governance. The eventual amalgamation of Italy and the disbandment of the Papal States signified the cessation of this particular theocratic administration, albeit the Vatican City endures as an exceptional entity governed by the Pope.

In contemporary times, Iran emerges as a noteworthy exemplar of a theocratic polity. Following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran metamorphosed into an Islamic Republic under the stewardship of Ayatollah Khomeini. The nation’s political framework amalgamates democratic tenets with theocratic precepts, where the Supreme Leader, a religious luminary, wields formidable influence over all branches of governance, encompassing the military and judiciary. Iranian jurisprudence is underpinned by Islamic tenets, with religious dignitaries assuming a pivotal role in elucidating and executing these statutes. This governance paradigm endeavors to cultivate a society consonant with Shia Islamic ethos, exerting influence across multifarious spheres, from individual comportment to economic strategies.

Saudi Arabia furnishes another contemporary illustration of a theocratic state. The nation is governed by a monarchy legitimized by a stringent construal of Sunni Islam. The Saudi Monarch, alongside religious scholars known as the ulema, supervises the enforcement of Sharia law. This legal framework governs all facets of life, encompassing criminal adjudication, familial jurisprudence, and commercial practices. The intimate rapport between the Saudi monarchy and religious authorities underscores the confluence of religious doctrine within the fabric of governance and legal apparatus of the realm.

The Vatican City, albeit diminutive in scale, stands as a contemporary theocracy wherein the Pope assumes paramount authority. As an autonomous city-state enclave ensconced within Rome, the Vatican serves as the ecclesiastical and administrative nucleus of the Roman Catholic Church. The governance paradigm of the Vatican is singular, with the Pope exercising unequivocal dominion over both spiritual and mundane affairs within its minuscule demesne. This theocratic governance is emblematic of the Vatican’s global ecclesiastical stewardship and its sway over Catholic dogma and praxis universally.

The instances of theocracy, whether historical or contemporary, evince the myriad manifestations through which religious authority can inform political governance. These systems oftentimes endeavor to foster societies consonant with specific religious precepts and values, impacting legislative frameworks, societal norms, and political architectures. While theocracy may proffer a sense of moral certitude and cohesion for certain societies, it concurrently engenders inquiries regarding the equilibrium between religious authority and individual liberties. The tension between upholding religious values and adapting to contemporary societal exigencies remains a pivotal quandary for theocratic regimes.

Scrutinizing theocratic governance through these exemplars engenders a deeper comprehension of the intricate interplay between religion and politics. Whether in antiquated civilizations or contemporary nation-states, theocracies underscore the enduring imprint of religious faith on human societies and the manifold configurations that governance may assume.

Remember, this discourse serves as a launching pad for contemplation and further exploration. For bespoke guidance and assurance of adherence to all scholarly requisites, contemplate consulting professionals at EduBirdie.

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