Calvo Doctrine
Calvo Doctrine
the principle of the inadmissibility of armed or diplomatic intervention by one state in another for the purpose of exacting payment of debts. It was proclaimed for the first time by the Argentinian legal expert and diplomat C. Calvo (1824-1906) in 1868, when European powers were intervening in Latin American countries under the pretext of exacting from the governments of these countries payments on the debts owed to citizens of the European powers. The principle was incorporated in several treaties concluded by Latin American countries among themselves and with European powers (such as the Italian-Paraguayan Treaty of 1893 and the French-Mexican-Nicaraguan Treaty of 1894). Early in the 20th century the doc-trine was developed and to some extent altered by Drago, theArgentinian minister of foreign affairs.