The privileges of the suzerain States over the subject countries were abolished and religious and press freedom guaranteed.

In the Robert E. Brown case, for example, the Arbitral Tribunal held that the authority of Great Britain, as suzerain over the South African Republic prior to the Boer War, “fell far short of what would be required to make her responsible for the wrong inflicted upon Brown.” It went on to deny that Great Britain possessed power to interfere in matters of internal administration and continued that there was no evidence “that Great Britain ever did undertake to interfere in this way.” Accordingly the relation of suzerainty “did not operate to render Great Britain liable for the act