How did the League of Nations Council make decisions?

The Council of the League of Nations primarily made decisions based on the principle of unanimity. With the exception of disputes likely to lead to a rupture—where the votes of the parties directly involved were not counted—all decisions of substance required a unanimous vote.1

To facilitate these proceedings, any League members concerned with the specific question under discussion were granted the rights of Council membership for that occasion. While the requirement for unanimity theoretically allowed any member to veto a decision, actual instances of vetoes or deadlocks were rare. In practice, the Council often leaned toward compromise or delay rather than pursuing clear-cut decisions.1