Organisation of the League of Nations
The League of Nations was established with three main constitutional organs: the Assembly; the Council; the Permanent Secretariat. The two essential wings of the League were the Permanent Court of International Justice and the International Labour Organization.
The relations between the Assembly and the council were not explicitly defined, and their competencies—with a few exceptions—were much the same. Each organ would deal with any matter within the sphere of competence of the League or affecting the peace in the world. Particular questions or tasks might be referred either to the council or the Assembly. Reference might be passed on from one body to another.
Constitutional organs
The League of Nations had three primary institutions: The secretariat, the assembly, and the council.Permanent secretariat
The Permanent Secretariat—established at the seat of the League at Geneva—comprised a body of experts in various spheres under the direction of the General Secretary. According to historian Susan Pedersen, the League secretariat was something "entirely new: a truly international bureaucracy, structured by function and not by nationality, loyal to an international charter, and capable of efficiently managing a complex programme."The principal Sections of the Secretariat were: Political; Financial and Economics; Communications and Transit; Minorities and Administration ; Mandates; Disarmament; Health; Social ; Intellectual Cooperation and International Bureaux; Legal; and Information. Each Section was responsible for all official secretarial work related to its particular subject and prepared and organized all meetings and conferences held in that connection.
The staff of the League's secretariat was responsible for preparing the agenda for the Council and Assembly and publishing reports of the meetings and other routine matters, effectively acting as the civil service for the League. The secretariat was often considered to be too small to handle all of the League's administrative affairs. For example, the total number of officials classed as members of the Secretariat was 75 in September 1924. The total staff, including all the clerical services, comprised about 400 persons in 1925.
In general, the League documents may be classified into the following categories: document on public sale, documents not on public sale, and classified, e.g., confidential and secret. The specific feature of the documents emanating from the League of Nations was their classification according to the persons they were addressed to and not according to their subjects.
| Symbol | Distribution |
| A | – Documents addressed to the Assembly's delegations and the Member States |
| C | – Documents addressed to the Council Members |
| M | – Documents addressed to all Member States |
| CL | – Circular Letters addressed to the Council Members and to a certain group of Member States |
The Covenant specifically named the secretary general as Britain's Eric Drummond, without indicating the length of his term. Drummond served until July 1933 and was succeeded by France's Joseph Avenol, who in turn was succeeded in August 1940 by Ireland's Seán Lester. Jean Monnet was the League's influential deputy secretary-general from June 1919 to January 1923, when he was succeeded by the comparative lacklustre Avenol. Pablo de Azcárate served as Avenol's successor as deputy secretary-general from 1933 to 1936.
Assembly
The Assembly consisted of representatives of all Members of the League. Each state was allowed up to three representatives and one vote. The Assembly had its sessions at Geneva and met on yearly basis on the first Monday of September according to the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, adopted at Its Eleventh Meeting, 30 November 1920. A special session of the Assembly might be summoned at the request of a Member, provided a majority of the Members concurred.The Assembly had three forms of power:
- Electoral college: the Assembly admits new members to the League, elects non-permanent members to the council, and elects judges of the Permanent Court
- Constituent power: the Assembly discusses and proposes amendments to the Covenant.
- Deliberative power: the Assembly can discuss any issue pertaining to the Covenant or to international peace more generally.
The Plenary Meetings of the First Assembly were held from 15 November to 18 December in Geneva, Switzerland. At the opening session, there were 41 states. Six states were admitted during the meetings and consequently were represented during the session. In total, thirty one plenary meetings were held. The principal questions during the first session were: organization of the Secretariat, establishment of a new Organization to deal with Health question, new organism to deal with Communication and transit, and a new Economic and Financial Organization, admission of new Member states, relations between the Council and the Assembly, nomination of the non-permanent Members of the council, establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice, the first and second budgets of the League, conflict between Poland and Soviet Russia, and repatriation of prisoners of war.
President
The President of the Assembly was Paul Hymans of Belgium and the honorary president was Giuseppe Motta of Switzerland. The Assembly at its Fifth Plenary Meeting elected the six vice-presidents. Thirty-nine states have taken part in the ballot, so the required majority was 20 votes.| Vice-president | Country | Votes at the first ballot |
| HE Viscount Ishii Kikujirō | Japan | 32 |
| HE Jonkheer Herman Adriaan van Karnebeek | Netherlands | 31 |
| HE Dr. Honorio Pueyrredón | Argentina | 28 |
| HE Dr. Edvard Beneš | Czechoslovakia | 26 |
| The Rt. Hon Sir George Eulas Foster | Canada | 22 |
| HE M. Rodrigo Otávio | Brazil | 18 |
The sixth vice-president was elected at a second ballot with 22 votes. The Vice-presidents ex officio as Chairmen of the Committees were Arthur Balfour, British Empire; Tommaso Tittoni, Italy; Léon Bourgeois, France; Jose Maria Quiñones de León, Spain; Antonio Huneeus Gana, Chile; and Hjalmar Branting, Sweden.
Committees
The General Committee of the Assembly was constituted of the President and the 12 vice-presidents with Sir Eric Drummond, the Secretary-General. There were six committees: Constitutional questions, with chairman Arthur Balfour, Technical Organisations, with chairman M Tittoni, Permanent Court of International Justice with Chairman Léon Bourgeois, Organisation of the Secretariat and Finances of the League with chairman Quinones de Léon, Admission of New Members into the League with chairman Huneeus Gana, and Mandates Questions, Armaments, and the Economic Weapon with chairman Hjalmar Branting.Council
The League Council acted as a type of executive body directing the Assembly's business, although the Covenant does not detail the precise relationship between the Council and Assembly. The council began with four permanent members and four non-permanent members which were elected by the Assembly for a three-year period. The first four non-permanent members were Belgium, Brazil, Greece and Spain. The United States was meant to be the fifth permanent member, but the US Senate voted on 19 March 1920 against the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, thus preventing American participation in the League.The Assembly frequently recommended that the Council take a certain act, which the Council subsequently usually did. Due to its smaller membership, the Council met more regularly.
List of council sessions, 1920
The first session of the council was held in Paris at the Ministry of foreign Affairs on 16 January 1920. The following members of the League were represented: Belgium, Brazil, The British empire, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, and Spain.The French representative, Mr Léon Bourgeois, was elected as the first Chairman of the Council.
The second session of the council was held in London at St. James's Palace on 11 Feb 1920. The following members of the League were represented: Belgium, Brazil, The British Empire, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, and Spain. The British Empire was represented by the right Honourable A.J. Balfour, who was elected as president. The Secretary General of the League, Sir Eric Drummond, was also present, and assisted in the preparation of the agenda and relevant documents.
The third session of the council was held at the Quai d’Osrsay in Paris on 13 Mar 1920. The following members of the League were represented: Belgium, Brazil, The British Empire, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, and Spain. In accordance with Art. VI of the Covenant, M. Zamoisky, ambassador of Poland in Paris, sat as a member during the discussion concerning Poland, namely the typhus in Poland.
The fourth session of the council was held at the Palais du Petit-Luxembourg in Paris on 9–11 April 1920. The following members of the League were represented: Belgium, Brazil, The British Empire, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, and Spain. The main issues discussed were: the status of Armenia, the protection of minorities in Turkey, the repatriation of prisoners of war in Siberia, and the question of Danzig.
The fifth session of the council was held at the Palaso Chigi in Rome on 15 May 1920. The President of the session was the Italian representative, Mr Tittoni. The main issues discussed were: the Traffic in Women and Children, the question of Eupen and Malmedy, prevention of disease in Central Europe, the International Committee of Jurists, and the Prisoners in Siberia. The second public meeting was held at the Capitol on 19 May 1920.