Hague Conference on Private International Law

The longtime status of Netherlands as a largely neutral nation in international conflicts and the corresponding ascendance of The Hague as a primary location for diplomatic and international conferences has led to several negotiated conventions over the years being termed the Hague Convention:


 * The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, agreements providing, among others things, regulations for the commencement of hostilities and conduct of belligerents and neutral powers towards each other and other nations, and outlawing the use of certain types of weapons in warfare.
 * The International Opium Convention, the first international drug control treaty, is sometimes referred to as the Hague Convention of 1912 (signed on 23 January of that year). It has been superseded by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
 * The Hague Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws of 1930.
 * The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (signed 14 May 1954; entered into force 7 August 1956), requiring its signatories to avoid damaging culturally significant sites during wartime.
 * The Hague Conference on Private International Law, an international treaty organization that oversees a series of dozens of conventions drawn up from the early 1900s through the present day aiming to rationalize certain aspects of civil law between signatories. The various conventions deal with the recognition of marriages performed in another country, international child abduction, international adoption, international service of process in civil actions, recognition of other countries' official documents, and the rationalization of some financial laws, among numerous other issues.  One of the better known of these is Convention #12, the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. For a list of the various Hague Conventions see List of Hague Conventions on Private International Law.
 * The Hague Convention 1996 providing for the co-ordination of legal systems, and for international judicial and administrative co-operation to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children of 20 November 1989, and complement the widely ratified Hague Conventions of 25 October 1980 on Child Abduction and of 29 May 1993 on Inter-country Adoption.