No 13, Issue 2       

INTERNATIONAL PENAL REFORM AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS: VESPASIAN V. PELLA AND THE MAKING OF A TRANSNATIONAL PENITENTIARY REFORM (1932-1939)

Tudor MUREȘAN

Abstract

This paper examines how the League of Nations, between 1932 and 1939, developed a coordinated international framework for penal and penitentiary reform through the work of semi-official organizations such as the International Bureau for the Unification of Criminal Law (IBUCL), the International Penal and Penitentiary Commission (IPPC), and the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC). Using primary archival sources, the study reconstructs the emergence of a transnational penal governance system anchored in shared standards – most notably the “Minimum Rules” for the treatment of prisoners – and identifies Vespasian V. Pella’s central role in linking legal codification, police cooperation, and prison reform. The findings show that these initiatives translated soft international norms into national legislation, exemplified by the Romanian Penal Code of 1937. The paper concludes that the League’s penal order laid the institutional groundwork for later human rights and criminal justice frameworks.

Keywords: League of Nations; penal reform; penitentiary standards; international criminal law; Vespasian V. Pella; prison governance; interwar diplomacy.

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