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22 Brit. Y.B. Int'l L. 96 (1945)
The Most-Favored-Nation Standard in British State Practice

handle is hein.journals/byrint22 and id is 100 raw text is: THE MOST-FAVOURED-NATION STANDARD IN BRITISH STATE PRACTICE By GEORG SCHWARZENBERGER, Ph.D., Dr.Jur. Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Laws and Lecturer in International Law and Relations at University College, London IN the course of its growth, international law has evolved various standards of conduct which are of special significance for one of its most recent offshoots, namely, international economic law. These standards may be classified as the Minimum Standards of International Law, developed in bilateral treaties and, to some extent, in international judicial practice; the standards of the Open Door and of Equitable Treatment, laid down in a number of recent collective agreements; and, finally, the following standards which owe their origin largely to bilateral treaties: the standards of Reciprocity, National Treatment, Preferential Treatment and Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment. The present article is devoted to a discussion of the last-mentioned standard. Most-favoured-nation treatment (for which the abbreviation m.f.n. treat- ment will be used in this article) has come to mean something very different from what that term prima facie suggests and-it may be added-what has been its original meaning: i.e. the treatment of a State as more favoured than any other. Used in its technical sense, the m.f.n. standard may be defined as treatment on a footing not inferior to that of the most favoured third State.1 This international standard is characterized by four elements inherent in the conception of m.f.n. treatment: (a) m.f.n. treatment is incompatible with any discrimination on the part of the promisor against the beneficiary and in favour of third States. M.f.n. treatment excludes preferential treat- ment of third States by the promisor. (b) M.f.n. treatment does not exclude the grant by the promisor of additional advantages beyond those conceded to the most favoured third State. M.f.n. treatment is compatible with preferential treatment of the beneficiary by the promisor. (c) States other than the promisor and beneficiary form the tertium comparationis. M.f.n. treatment requires the absence of discrimination as compared with third States. It does not imply either national or reciprocal treatment of the beneficiary. (d) M.f.n. treatment does not demand compliance with any definite and objective rules of conduct. The rights actually enjoyed under the standard are merely the counterpart of the rights granted by the promisor to third States. In the absence of undertakings to third States, the m.f.n. standard is but an empty shell, and, in operation, it is a shell with variable-and continuously varying-contents. I Treaty concluded with means a treaty between this country with the State mentioned. On the meaning and scope of this field of international law, see the present writer's The Development of International Economic and Financial Law by the Permanent Court of International Justice, Juridical Review, 54 (1942), pp. 21 et 8eq.

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