Peace Palace
You start at the Peace Palace, the Vredespaleis, an international courthouse that still does daily work. It houses the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial body of the United Nations, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The palace opened on 28 August 1913 and continues to host dozens of hearings every year, so the building in front of you is a working court, not a monument to a past idea.
The idea itself began with an arms race. In the late 1800s states were pouring money into their militaries, and the risk of a large war was growing. Russia's Czar Nicholas II proposed a conference to find peaceful ways of settling disputes. In 1899 delegates from 26 states, from Europe and the Ottoman Empire to the United States, Mexico, China, Japan, Siam and Persia, met at Huis Ten Bosch in The Hague for what became the First Hague Peace Conference.
Its main result was a convention that called arbitration “the most effective, and at the same time the most equitable means” of settling disputes where diplomacy had failed. It created the Permanent Court of Arbitration, meant to be “accessible to all” and “accessible at all times”, the first permanent intergovernmental body for resolving international disputes peacefully. The founding states then decided the court needed a dedicated home that would encourage nations to come and use it: this palace.
The Visitors Centre is free and the easiest way to understand what happens here. The palace and its gardens can only be entered on a paid guided tour on selected days, which is worth planning around if international law or grand interiors are your thing. From here it is 1250 m, about 17 minutes, to Noordeinde Palace, from the court of nations to the workplace of the Dutch King.
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