bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Proposal for an International Criminal Court
Authors: Wright Quincy
Published: April 2006

The Committee on International Criminal Jurisdiction appointed by the General Assembly of the United Nations met in Geneva in August, 1951. Its report, accompanied by a Draft Statute for an International Criminal Court, has been submitted to the, governments of Member States for comment before June 1, 1952.
The Establishment of an International Criminal Jurisdiction: The First Phase
Authors: Liang Yuen-li
Published: April 2006

The need for an international criminal jurisdiction was recognized by the General Assembly of the United tjations in a resolution adopted in 1948, in which it was stated in the preamble thalt “in the course of development of the international community, there will be an increasing need of an international judicial organ for the trial of certain crimes under international law.”
Edmund Burke and the Law of Nations
Authors: Stanlis Peter J.
Published: April 2006

It is generally agreed that the modern origins of the law of nations are to be found in two great early seventeenth-century works, Suarez’ Tractatus de legibus ac deo legislatore (1612) and Grotius' De jure belli et pacis (1625). Among their contemporaries, Suarez and Grotius were moderate and mediating men, and they were therefore particularly aware that the basic problems of international diplomacy—the just causes and conduct of war, treatment of prisoners, acquisition of sovereignty and booty through conquest, neutrality or intervention, maritime law, treaties, etc., had become profoundly complicated by the growth of a conscious and extreme political nationalism.
Property-Protection Provisions in United States Commercial Treaties
Authors: Wilson Robert R.
Published: April 2006

The matter of public international rules for the protection of private property rights has frequently received the attention of publicists, courts and treaty-makers. Some recent developments, bearing upon different aspects of the general subject, seem to attest its current and continuing importance. For example, the presentation to Congress of President Truman’s Point Four plan occasioned questions as to the guaranteeing of overseas investments of United States citizens. A few weeks later, at a meeting of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, a Belgian speaker and a representative of the International Chamber of Commerce emphasized the need for treating lenders according to certain standards of decency and fair play, and expressed the view that an economic climate encouraging to foreign investment was as far away as ever. On a somewhat broader plane, the appearance in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), but not in the more recently evolved International Covenant on Human Rights (1950), of provisions looking to the right of individuals to own property (“alone as well as in association with others”) and to be free from being arbitrarily deprived of it, raises questions as to whether the right of private property is not a basic “human” right.
Reservations to Multilateral Treaties
Authors: Fenwick C. G.
Published: April 2006

The problem of reservations to multilateral treaties signed at the close of international conferences is one that has long been a matter of concern to the regional Organization of the American States, as it is now to the Secretariat of the United Nations. How can we promote the general acceptance of international agreements and yet recognize that, after the text of the treaty has been agreed upon and signed by representatives of the executive department of a state, the popularly elected Congress, which in democratic constitutions must give its assent to the ratification of the treaty, may object to certain provisions of the treaty and refuse to approve the agreement without making exception of one or more objectionable articles?

The simplest answer would be to say that we simply cannot recognize any such intervention on the part of the legislative body. Once the treaty has been signed, the treaty must be ratified in the form signed or not ratified at all. But such a position would be needlessly extreme. What if the other signatories of the treaty find no objection to the proposed reservation, looking upon it as being no more than the expression of a national complex which the particular state may have with respect to possible effects of the treaty not contemplated by themselves, or in any case as not constituting any substantial obstacle to the attainment of the objectives of the treaty? In such a case the other signatories might readily agree to accept the proposed reservation under the belief that it is better to have the particular state cooperate in that restricted way than not at all; and if they are willing to do so, why not let them?
The Legal Position of Tibet
Authors: Li Tieh-Tseng
Published: April 2006

Tibet for most people remains a land of mystery. Books continue to be published which deal with its strange cults and religious practices. It is also a land of romance and adventure. But very little has been written on its political history and still less on its legal status. That is why Professor Charles Henry Alexandrowicz-Alexander’s article in the April, 1954, issue of this JOURNAL must be regarded as a welcome contribution.
The Relation of International Law to Internal Law in the French Constitutional System
Authors: Preuss Lawrence
Published: April 2006

During the five years that have elapsed since the close of hostilities in World War II, approximately one-half of the nations of the world have adopted new constitutions or have drastically revised existing ones. While some constitutions have been the products of a more or less regular modification, others have marked a revolutionary, though peaceful, development in conformity with Western political traditions. Some have followed the re-emergence of nations in defeat, and others have signalized the birth of new members of the family of nations. Finally, the régimes of the “People’s Democracy” have established instruments of government which are revolutionary both in their origin and their content.
The Names and Scope of Treaties
Authors: Myers Denys P.
Published: April 2006

All writers commencing with Grotius say that the names of instruments embraced in the genus treaty have little, if any, legal significance. All who mention the matter say that some instruments are more important in international relations than others, and that “treaty” or “convention” is at the top of the list of some three dozen words that are used to describe such instruments. All agree that treaties generically have the characteristic of legally recording what the parties have agreed to, and, beyond that, all hedge on completing a definition. Few writers attempt to draw a line between treaties and legal obligations that are not treaties. In one way or another writers are accustomed to say that names are assigned to treaties idiosyncratically, at the whim of the draftsmen or by chance.
The Identification and Appraisal of Diverse Systems of Public Order
Authors: McDougal Myres S. , Lasswell Harold D.
Published: April 2006

It is a commonplace observation that the world arena today exhibits a number of systems of public order, each demanding and embodying the values of human dignity in very different degree.
The Prevention of Aggression
Authors: Wright Quincy
Published: April 2006

The United Nations functions in the main by persuasion rather than by coercion. The persuasive influence of its resolutions are powerful in proportion as they have the opinion of governments and peoples behind them, but the mobilization of such an opinion depends in no small degree upon the conviction of all the Members that resolutions are within the competence of United Nations organs. That competence is measured by the concept of domestic jurisdiction. The sentiment of nationalism is such that if many states believe a resolution directed toward a particular state constitutes an intervention in matters which are essentially within its domestic jurisdiction, the state addressed and other states may so resent the resolution that its effect, far from mobilizing world public opinion, will tend to disintegrate the United Nations.
The United States and the International Court of Justice: A Re–Examination
Authors: Briggs Herbert W.
Published: April 2006

In his State of the Union Message on January 9, 1959, President Eisenhower declared his purpose of intensifying efforts “to the end that the rule of law may replace the rule of force in the affairs of nations” and of making proposals for “a re-examination of our own relation to the International Court of Justice.”
Option of Nationality in Soviet Treaty
Practice, 1917–1924
Authors: Ginsburgs George
Published: April 2006

Option of nationality in its various forms
played an important rôle in the international law
and diplomacy of the second half of the nineteenth
century and the first quarter of the twentieth.
The concept undoubtedly reached a peak in
popularity and demand in connection with the
territorial settlements arising from the first
World War, only to fall into disuse in subsequent
years. The heyday of the idea of option in general
international law and relations in the years
following 1918 also coincided with the high point
of the usage of the principle in Soviet diplomatic
practice. Indeed, perhaps in the diplomatic
repertoire of no other nation was option of
nationality as frequently resorted to in this or
any other comparable period as in the Soviet
treaty arrangements of 1917–1924. Option in all
its various juridical expressions occupied from
the very first an extremely important place in the
legal and political acts of the Soviet regime in
its search for a modus
vivendi with Russia’s neighbors.
What is more, the experience of these first years
firmly established option as an active and
operative principle of Soviet foreign policy, in
which capacity it has remained until the very
present, whereas in the rest of the international
community option has but rarely been revived since
World War I.
Human Rights in the United Nations
Authors: McDougal Myres S. , Bebr Gerhard
Published: April 2006

“They meant simply to declare the right, so that enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit.

“They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere.”
The Enforcement of International Judgments
Authors: Reisman W. M.
Published: April 2006

“There’s th’ internaytional coort, ye say, but I say where ar-re th’ polis? A coort’s all r-right enough, but no coort’s anny good onless it is backed up by a continted constabulary.”

per Mr. Dooley, An International Police Force (1899).

The world community is not on the brink of Armageddon because of a paucity of legal answers. Legal institutions exist. Moreover, any problem, without respect to the identity of the decision-maker, may be solved “legally”: by impartial assessment of the facts and formulation of a decision by reference to the parties’ commitments as well as to overriding community policies. Most frequently the real problem is not in arriving at an answer in law, but in enforcing an answer in law. In the final analysis, law is not only, as the Legal Eealists contend, what the courts say 2 but also what the sheriff does. Law comprises not only the verbal pronouncements of authoritative organs, but also the established patterns of behavior of the individuals composing society.
Communist China and the Law of the Sea
Authors: Cheng Tao
Published: April 2006

The present study is a comment upon the official position of Communist China on various problems related to its internal waters, the territorial sea, and the high seas through an examination of laws, regulations, and international agreements as well as other official pronouncements. It is based primarily on China’s peacetime attitudes, although occasionally it has been necessary to take into account conditions of hostilities.
Law and Peaceful Change in a Subsystem: “Withdrawal” of France from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Authors: Stein Eric , Carreau Dominique
Published: April 2006

“Nothing can cause a law that is no longer in accord with custom to remain unamended. Nothing can eause a treaty to remain wholly valid once its purpose has altered. Nothing can cause an alliance to continue as it stands when the conditions in which it was created have changed.”—General de Gaulle, on Feb. 21, 1966.

The able American Ambassador to France, Charles E. Bohlen, has declared before a Senate Committee that the withdrawal of France from the NATO integrated commands was “probably the most serious event in European history since the end of the war.” In weighing this assessment, one might well keep in mind de Tocqueville’s reminder that “what we call essential institutions are often only the institutions to which we are accustomed.” Yet there is little question that the French move was a significant development in postwar Europe. The purpose of this article is to explore some implications of this development for the international system and for the international legal order.
Treaties and Changed Circumstances (Rebus Sic Stantibus)
Authors: Lissitzyn Oliver J.
Published: April 2006

The problem of a state’s right to cease or limit its performance of the provisions of a treaty on the ground that circumstances have changed is an old one. After centuries of doctrinal discussion, the existence, scope and modalities of such a right remain controversial and perplexing. Its practical importance may at times be exaggerated; but nations dissatisfied with the status quo continue to regard it as a welcome device for escaping from burdensome treaties, while others fear it as a threat to stability and to their interests. Terminology has complicated the problem. Scholars, in efforts to define the asserted right and its scope or to provide a doctrinal basis for its modalities, have resorted to numerous technical labels drawn largely from municipal legal systems. Governments, in asserting the right, have variously employed or refrained from employing such terms as rebus sic stantibus. Terminological diversity has sometimes served to obscure substantive similarities and differences in practice and to divert the attention of scholars from underlying community interests and policies.
Rhodesia and the United Nations: The Lawfulness of International Concern
Authors: McDougal Mybes S. , Reisman W. Michael
Published: April 2006

Locked in south central Africa by Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and the Republic of South Africa, Rhodesia comprises a land mass of over 150,000 square miles and a population of about four million blacks and 220,000 whites. From 1889 until 1922 the area was administered by a chartered company formed by Cecil Rhodes. In 1922 the white settlers opted for the status of a self-governing colony, and in 1923 Southern Rhodesia was annexed by Great Britain. In 1953 it joined, with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland in a federation, still under the United Kingdom; the venture proved unsuccessful and was terminated in 1963.
Some International Law Problems Posed by the Nationalization of the Copper Industry by Chile
Authors: Vicuña Francisco Orrego
Published: April 2006

The complex process surrounding the nationalization of the copper industry in Chile has raised numerous important questions and engendered conflicting claims about principles and standards required by international law in property takings affecting the interests and rights of aliens. The purpose of this article is to examine, in an objective fashion, some of these questions and claims with particular reference to well-established precedents and contemporary doctrines in this problematic area of international law. Such an attempt at objectivity is not easy since the Chilean nationalization involves necessarily disparate notions about the right to property and its protection under municipal and international law.
Barcelona Traction: The Jus Standi of Belgium
Authors: Briggs Herbert W.
Published: April 2006

In its Judgment of February 5, 1970, in the Case Concerning the Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company, Limited (New Application, 1962, Belgium v. Spain, Second Phase), the International Court of Justice, by a vote of 15 to 1, rejected, for lack of jus stanai, a Belgian claim of a right of diplomatic protection of alleged Belgian shareholders in a Canadian company allegedly victim of a series of denials of justice by Spanish authorities. Essentially, the Court’s decision denies the existence of any general rule of international law or of any special circumstances or considerations of equity which confer a right of diplomatic protection of national shareholders in a foreign company where the acts complained of were directed by authorities of a third state against the company rather than against any legal rights of the shareholders as such. The opinion of the Court is, for the most part, soundly reasoned and comes after thorough argument of the precedents and brilliant presentation of opposing contentions of law and fact by distinguished counsel. Attorneys may safely advise clients that the Court’s opinion sets forth the existing law and that any special protection of shareholders as such in a foreign company must be based on treaty stipulations or special agreements.
The Rann of Kutch Arbitration
Authors: Wetter J. Gillis
Published: April 2006

The boundary dispute between India and Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch case is one of the major instances of international arbitration in the postwar period.

The object of the ad hoc Tribunal was to determine a sector of the boundary between India and Pakistan in the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent between what in British times was Sind, now forming part of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the State of Kutch and other Native Indian States, which now form part of the Province of Gujarat in the Republic of India. The length of the boundary eventually established by the Tribunal was about 255 miles. The disputed territory, the area of which has been estimated to be 3,500 square miles, consisted for the most part of a portion of a tract known as the Great Rann of Kutch, or the Rann.
Unauthorized Changes of Par Value and Fluctuating Exchange Rates in the Bretton Woods System
Authors: Gold Joseph
Published: April 2006

In these days when the exchange rate provisions of the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund are being scrutinized, although in a spirit of continued approbation of the basic principles of what is called the par-value system or the Bretton Woods system, it may be useful to examine one of the most remarkable features of the agreement which was reached in July, 1944. The reference is to Article IV, Section 6, of the Articles of Agreement, which deals with what are called, in the title of the provision, "unauthorized changes" of par values. The provision is interesting not only because it establishes an important principle of the par-value system but also because it does this by means of a novel and ingenious legal technique.
After Bangladesh: The Law of Humanitarian Intervention by Military Force
Authors: Franck Thomas M. , Rodley Nigel S.
Published: April 2006

In the Bangladesh crisis, two important objectives of international law appeared to be in conflict: that of peace and that of justice. The former objective is set out in the rules of the U.N. Charter against the use of force by states except in self-defense against an armed attack. The second is found in the provisions of the Charter and in various resolutions, declarations, and covenants pertaining to fundamental human rights and self determination.
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
Authors: Firmage Edwin Brown
Published: April 2006

On March 13, 1969, the United States Senate by a vote of 83 to 15 consented to the ratification of a treaty described as “the most important international agreement brought before the U. S. Senate since the North Atlantic Pact” and “the most important international agreement limiting nuclear arms since the nuclear age began.” Assuming a timely entry into force, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons may delay incarnation of the specter which “haunted” John F. Kennedy:

I see the possibility in the 1970's of the President of the United States having to face a world in which 15 or 20 or 25 nations may have these [nuclear] weapons. I regard that as the greatest possible danger and hazard.
The International Energy Agency: an Interpretation and Assessment
Authors: Willrich Mason , Conant Melvin A.
Published: April 2006

When the representatives of thirteen major OECD oil-importing countries met in Washington, D.C. in February 1974 to discuss cooperation in the energy field in order to meet the challenge posed by the OAPEC oil embargo, the outlook for successful negotiations was far from bright.
H.R.11315—The Revised State-Justice Bill on Foreign Sovereign Immunity: Time for Action
Authors: Atkeson Timothy , Perkins Samuel , Wyatt Michael
Published: April 2006

The commercial contacts of foreign governments and their agencies with the American economy are steadily growing in number and importance. In addition to the numerous foreign government-owned airlines and shipping concerns doing business in the United States, foreign government ownership of, or participation in, industrial, banking, and trading corporations doing business here is substantial. Furthermore, in more and more instances U.S. petroleum and other imports are purchased from foreign governmental entities whose contacts with the United States will probably become more extensive. Foreign governments, directly or through purchasing entities, are making huge annual purchases of American agricultural exports. The U.S. capital market continues to handle substantial volumes of borrowing by foreign governments and their instrumentalities.
The System for Exploitation of the “Common Heritage of Mankind” at the Caracas Conference
Authors: Adede A. O.
Published: April 2006

The purpose of this article is to examine the work of the First Main Committee of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea at Caracas, with particular attention to the question of the system of exploration and exploitation of the seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. This is the area which the United Nations General Assembly in 1970 had characterized as constituting, together with its natural resources, the “common heritage of mankind” in the Declaration of Principles Governing the Sea-bed and the Ocean Floor, and the Subsoil Thereof, Beyond the Limits of National Jurisdiction.
Regional Arrangements in the Oceans
Authors: Alexander Lewis M.
Published: April 2006

The techniques of ocean management are in a process of continuing and accelerating change as new countries emerge into independence and as new perspectives are adopted toward the control and use of the ocean environment. Two decades ago, as preparations were underway for the First Law of the Sea Conference, all of the ocean space, save for narrow bands of coastal waters, was conceived of as high seas, open to the use of all countries. Little attention was paid to the differences in marine interests and capabilities of the then nearly ninety independent coastal and land-locked states. The preeminence of the major maritime powers and their insistence on maximizing the freedom of the seas meant that few concessions to the special needs and concerns of the less-developed countries were even considered. Freedom of navigation, overflight, fishing, and scientific research beyond narrow territorial limits were major blocks upon which the law of the sea of the latter 1950’s was constructed.
The United States and Self-Determination: Perspectives on the Wilsonian Conception
Authors: Pomerance Michla
Published: April 2006

Ever since the principle of self-determination entered the lexicon of international politics during World War I, American foreign policymakers have had to contend with problems revolving around that concept. The need to favor one or another claimant, each waving the banner of self-determination and invoking the “right to determine its own fate,” continues to present dilemmas, often extremely troubling ones, for U.S. decisionmakers. Examples from recent history come readily to mind. The entire post-World War II decolonization process entailed an endless series of such dilemmas, and even after formal decolonization was all but completed, such nagging issues as Katanga, Biafra, and Eritrea remained, not to mention the problems of South Africa, Northern Ireland, the Middle East, and Indochina. Indeed, even within America’s own imperial domain, the United States was faced with the conflicting demands of the Puerto Rican nationalists and the majority of the Puerto Rican electorate, the claims of the Marianas as against those of Micronesia as a whole, and demands for cultural autonomy on the part of diverse ethnic groups.
The Draft Code of Offences Against the Peace and Security of Mankind
Authors: Ferencz Benjamin B.
Published: April 2006

At its session that ended in December 1980, the United Nations considered a
subject that had been allowed to lie dormant for over a quarter of a century. It
was first taken up in 1946, after President Truman called for the reaffirmation of
“the principles of the Niirnberg Charter in the context of a general codification
of offenses against the peace and security of mankind.” The General Assembly
responded promptly by passing three resolutions in rapid succession on December
11, 1946, which created a Committee for the Progressive Development of
International Law and its Codification, affirmed the Nuremberg principles, and
declared that genocide was an international crime. The International Law
Commission (ILC) was charged with preparing the desired Code of Offences after its
establishment in 1947. Yet, 34 years after the General Assembly’s call for action,
the refrain was still being heard: “The time is not yet ripe.” The question likely
to face the United Nations when it reconvenes in 1981 will be: “If not now,
when?”
United States Restrictions on Exports to South Africa
Authors: Mehlman Maxwell J. , Milch Thomas H. , Toumanoff Michael V.
Published: April 2006

Since 1964 the United States has restricted military exports to the Republic of South Africa and to Namibia in compliance with a voluntary arms embargo established by the United Nations. In 1977 the United Nations, with United States support, made this ban mandatory. Shortly thereafter, the Department of Commerce significantly broadened U.S. export restrictions by prohibiting all exports—not merely arms and other military equipment—that the exporter knows or has reason to know are destined for use by the South African military or police.
Recognition of Governments should not be Abolished
Authors: Peterson M. J.
Published: April 2006

Recognition of governments serves three functions in the international legal system: ensuring that only regimes clearly deserving such status are accepted as governments of states, assuring new governments that others will respect their status, and informing courts, government agencies, and nationals of recognizing states that a particular regime is in fact the government of another state. Lately, some statesmen and a respectable number of legal scholars have come to view recognition of governments as causing more difficulties than it is worth as it is now used. In particular, they suspect that decisions whether to recognize a new regime often depend more on its character or policy than on its ability to meet the objective test of effectively ruling its state, and they believe that current doctrine on the effects of recognition or nonrecognition creates unnecessary confusion.
The Delimitation of Lateral Seaward Boundaries Between States in a Domestic Context
Authors: Charney Jonathan I.
Published: April 2006

In 1976 the United States Congress established the Coastal Energy Impact Program (CEIP) for the purpose of giving financial assistance to those coastal states of the United States off whose shores resource development was being conducted on the outer continental shelf. The program was designed to alleviate the burden that offshore development was said to have placed on those coastal states. The enacting legislation stipulated that the states must comply with certain requirements of the Act in exchange for the distribution of federal funds. Although these funds were to be provided partly in the form of grants distributed on the basis of various statutory formulas, the largest amount of the grants was to be divided on the basis of adjacency. Thus, a coastal state would receive additional funds if the activity on the outer continental shelf took place in the area determined to be “adjacent” to that state. As a result, the geographical description of the areas “adjacent” to each coastal state had a direct impact on the amount of funds each state would realize from the program. Statutory provisions and the regulations required that adjacency be determined on the basis of lateral boundaries drawn in the ocean seaward from the coastal state. Those boundaries might already have been established on the basis of interstate agreements or court decisions. In the absence of such delimitations, the Assistant Administrator for Coastal Zone Management of the Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was called upon to establish the “lateral seaward boundaries” on the basis of the international law applicable to lateral boundary delimitations. The “lateral seaward boundaries” so established by the Assistant Administrator would have no legal significance other than for CEIP purposes.
Oil and Gas Deposits Across National Frontiers
Authors: Lagoni Rainer
Published: April 2006

Liquid mineral deposits that extend across a national frontier on land territory or a dividing line on the continental shelf between adjacent or opposite states have increasingly attracted attention in international law during the last two decades. Several common deposits of petroleum or natural gas have recently been discovered, and since the early sixties a considerable number of international agreements have been concluded to deal with the problems of those deposits. This development gives rise to certain considerations regarding an emerging legal concept of cooperation between neighboring states, as has already occurred with water resources shared by two or more states.
Marine Pollution under the Law of the Sea Convention
Authors: Boyle Alan E.
Published: April 2006

It is now 30 years since the conclusion of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil marked the international community’s first serious attempt to cope with the increasing scale of marine pollution. Since then, pollution of the seas by oil, chemicals, nuclear waste and the effluent of urban industrial society has continued to grow and to cause ever more serious damage to the living resources and ecology of the marine environment and to the shores of coastal states. The control, reduction and elimination of marine pollution has become one of the major issues in the contemporary law of the sea and it has proved to be a complex task, requiring the creation of a new and growing body of international law. This process, though in certain respects still incomplete, has reached its potentially most significant stage of codification and development through the provisions of the Law of the Sea Convention of 1982.
The Right to Compensation: Refugees and Countries of Asylum
Authors: Lee Luke T.
Published: April 2006

The entire burden of caring for millions of refugees has until now been assumed by the uprooted refugees themselves, their countries of asylum, their countries of resettlement and donors, whether directly or through international organizations. Overlooked are the responsibilities of the countries of origin both toward their own citizens now turned refugees and toward the countries of asylum saddled with the burden of caring for those refugees. This paper focuses on the responsibilities of the source countries under international law to compensate refugees and countries of asylum. It is hoped that clarification and fulfillment of these responsibilities will contribute not only to the well-being of refugees and the alleviation of the burdens on their hosts, but also to the reduction or eradication of the very phenomenon of “refugees.”
Recommendation on Minimum International Labor Standards
Authors: Teunissen Hans J. J.
Published: April 2006

In 1984, under the chairmanship of Professor Louis J. Emmery, a working group of the Netherlands National Advisory Council for Development Cooperation drafted a report on minimum international labor standards. The report was approved by the Council late that year and was subsequently presented to the Minister for Development Cooperation.
Two Ways of Thinking about Cultural Property
Authors: Merryman John Henry
Published: April 2006

One way of thinking about cultural property—i.e., objects of artistic, archaeological, ethnological or historical interest—is as components of a common human culture, whatever their places of origin or present location, independent of property rights or national jurisdiction. That is the attitude embodied in the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of May 14, 1954 (hereinafter “Hague 1954”), which culminates a development in the international law of war that began in the mid-19th century.
Introduction
Authors: Maier Harold G.
Published: April 2006

The ultimate authority of the International Court of Justice flows from the same source as the ultimate authority of all other judicial bodies. Every court’s decisions are an authoritative source of law in a realistic sense only because they are accepted as such by the community whose controversies the court is charged to resolve. In the case of the World Court, it is the community of nations that confers that authority and under the Court’s Statute, its jurisdiction is conferred solely by the consent of the nations whose disputes it is called to adjudicate. It is for this reason that the case Nicaragua v. United States and the actions of both the Court and the United States Government in connection with it are of special importance to those who are concerned with international law.
Trashing Customary International Law
Authors: D’Amato Anthony
Published: April 2006

Central to the World Court’s mission is the determination of international custom “as evidence of a general practice accepted as law.” Students of the Court’s jurisprudence have long been aware that the Court has been better at applying customary law than defining it. Yet until Nicaragua v. United States, little harm was done. For in the sharply contested cases prior to Nicaragua, the Court managed to elicit commonalities in argumentative structure that gravitated its rulings toward the customary norms implicit in state practice. The Court’s lack of theoretical explicitness simply meant that a career opportunity arose for some observers like me to attempt to supply the missing theory of custom.
Of Gnats and Camels: Is There a Double Standard at the United Nations?
Authors: Franck Thomas M.
Published: April 2006

Does the United Nations, in Saint Matthew’s words, “strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel”? Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr., a U.S. alternate delegate to the 38th United Nations General Assembly in 1983, spoke for many in and outside the U.S. Government when, after the end of the session, he charged in the New York Times that “[f]or decades, the United Nations has practiced a double standard.” Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick has elaborated the same point, accusing the Organization of being “perverted by politicization.”
Interim Measures Pending Maritime Delimitation Agreements
Authors: Lagoni Rainer
Published: April 2006

Since President Truman claimed zones of extended coastal jurisdiction for the United States in September 1945, the delimitation of zones of national jurisdiction between states with opposite or adjacent coasts has become a major legal and political issue in international relations. The development of the concept of the continental shelf during the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the claim to extended fisheries zones or exclusive economic zones by nearly all coastal states under the sway of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea since the mid-1970s, gave rise to delimitation problems all over the world. Similar problems may arise if more states extend their territorial seas to 12 nautical miles, which they may do under the new United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS Convention) of 1982. By now, a considerable number of delimitation agreements have been concluded on the continental shelf and/or the territorial sea, and even agreements on the delimitation of fisheries zones have been reported.
Reflections on the Lawfulness of Invasion
Authors: Joyner Christopher C.
Published: April 2006

Grenada is a micro-state located in the southeastern Caribbean Sea, approximately 1600 miles from the United States. Its territory covers some 133 square miles—about twice the size of the District of Columbia—and its citizen population numbers around 110,000. Granted independence from British colonial rule in 1974, Grenada functioned under a parliamentary government until March 1979, when Maurice Bishop’s New Joint Endeavor for the Welfare, Education, and Liberation (JEWEL) Movement ousted then Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy in a near bloodless coup. Since attaining independence, Grenada sought and secured membership in the British Commonwealth, the Organization of American States, the Caribbean Common Market and the United Nations.
Grenada and the International Double Standard
Authors: Moore John Norton
Published: April 2006

Grenada is one of seven small and newly independent island nations in the Caribbean sharing a common cultural and political background and a close association within the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Because of their small size and common background, these seven nations share a common market, a common currency and to some extent common administrative, diplomatic, judicial and defense functions within the OECS framework. Although independent, in many respects they have closer ties than, for example, members of the OAS or even the EEC.
The UN Group of Governmental Experts on International Co-Operation to Avert New Flows of Refugees: Part II
Authors: Lee Luke T.
Published: April 2006

This is the second of a two-part report on the UN Group of Governmental Experts on International Co-operation to Avert New Flows of Refugees. The group completed its work in May 1986 when it submitted its report to the Secretary-General for transmittal to the General Assembly. It had held eight sessions in New York, two every spring since April 1983 of mainly 2-week duration each, and had closely followed the Programme of Work adopted at its second session.
The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
Authors: Umozurike U. O.
Published: April 2006

During the 1970’s human rights appeared to enjoy low esteem in Africa. The basic documents in inter-African relations were the UN and the OAU Charters. In its Preamble, as well as four substantive articles, the UN Charter refers to respect for human rights as a basis for international relations. The principles of human rights were further elaborated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 whose principles, in the view of some writers, have become part of customary international law. This Declaration was in turn elaborated on in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966.
Dilemma or Chimera?—Admissibility of Illegally Obtained Evidence in International Adjudication
Authors: Thirlway Hugh
Published: April 2006

Procedural law on the international plane, especially the law applicable to international judicial proceedings, has long tended to be the poor relation of substantive law. In particular, insufficient attention has often been paid to its sources, and to the manner in which it may be created; and confident assertions tending to confuse the Sollen with the Essen, lex lata with lex ferenda, have been made with a frequency not to be expected in other fields of international law. Hence the common temptation to model international procedural norms or rules on what are perceived to be analogous dispositions of municipal procedural law, without taking sufficient account either of the degree of generality, actual or potential, of the municipal law rule, or of the accuracy of the analogy involved in its transfer to the international plane.
Self-Defense and the Rule of Law
Authors: Schachter Oscar
Published: April 2006

Self-defense on the international level is generally regarded, at least by international lawyers, as a legal right defined and legitimated by international law. Governments, by and large, appear to agree. When they have used force, they have nearly always claimed self-defense as their legal justification. Governments disputing that claim have usually asserted that the legal conditions of self-defense were not met in the particular case. However, despite the apparent agreement that self-defense is governed by law, the meaning and validity of that proposition remain open to question. There are some who challenge the basic idea that the security of a state—its self-preservation—can and should be subjected to international law. Others question whether under present conditions the ideal of a rule of law can be applied on the international level to national security decisions. My aim in this essay is to explore some aspects of the problem raised by these challenges to the applicability of international law to claims of self-defense. It is not my intention, I should add, to consider specific interpretations of self-defense.
Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States
Authors: Kravet Donald J.
Published: April 2006

In Claim 4, one of several in Case No. Bl before the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, claimant, the Islamic Republic of Iran, sought to recover from the United States possession of certain military equipment that had been sold to Iran pursuant to contracts forming part of the U.S. “Foreign Military Sales” (FMS) program. In the alternative, Iran sought compensation from the United States in the amount of U.S. $143,290,948, plus interest, for the alleged replacement value of the property at issue. In this partial award, the Full Tribunal held: that the United States was not obliged to deliver the equipment and that Iran’s request for specific performance must be denied, but that the United States was still required to compensate Iran for the value of the properties as of March 26, 1981, the date the United States communicated its decision not to permit their export to Iran. The Tribunal did not make an award of damages at this stage, since neither party had provided evidence as to the value of the goods on that date. American Arbitrators Howard H. Holtzmann and Charles N. Brower each filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in pArt. The three Iranian arbitrators concurred in the award, but without filing an opinion.
The McDougal-Lasswell Proposal to Build a World Public Order
Authors: Dorsey Gray L.
Published: April 2006

The January 1959 issue of this Journal carried the famous proposal by Myres S. McDougal and Harold D. Lasswell to build a world public order based on human dignity that would save the world from nuclear Armageddon and protect democratic values. The authors expressed the belief that the democratic countries were responding ineffectively to Marxist-Leninist expansionism because they appealed to international law rules and principles that were asserted or assumed to be universal but, in fact, did not have universal effectiveness. Two dangers existed, therefore: the universal triumph of totalitarianism or nuclear war between blocs led by the United States and the Soviet Union. The proposed world public order would make it possible to escape this horrendous dilemma.
The Nature of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal and the Evolving Structure of International Dispute Resolution
Authors: Caron David D.
Published: April 2006

The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal has been called “the most significant arbitral body in history”; its awards, “a gold mine of information for perceptive lawyers.” In a recent international commercial arbitration, however, an arbitrator reportedly stated that decisions of the Tribunal, although on point, were not persuasive because the Tribunal, after all, involves a special type of arbitration. This arbitrator is not alone. A lecturer at the Hague Academy of International Law, speaking on international commercial arbitration, reportedly did not refer to the Tribunal’s jurisprudence because he did not find it relevant to his work for the same reason. Viewed as a gigantic experiment in international dispute resolution rather than merely a claims settlement device for this particular group of disputes, the Tribunal thus appears (at least to some) to yield decisions of unclear precedential value. Millions of dollars have been spent on its operation and hundreds of awards rendered, yet an apparently not uncommon perception is that the work of this, in some respects unique, institution is not applicable elsewhere.
Do we owe a Duty to Future Generations to Preserve the Global Environment?
Authors: D’Amato Anthony
Published: April 2006

A common assumption underlying nearly every book or essay on the global environment is that the present generation owes a duty to generations yet unborn to preserve the diversity and quality of our planet’s life-sustaining environmental resources. This duty is sometimes said to be an emerging norm of customary international law, including the more recently treaty-generated custom of the “common heritage of mankind.” Professor Edith Brown Weiss lists three different approaches one might take in response to an asserted environmental obligation to future generations: the “opulent” model, which denies any such obligation and permits present extravagance and waste; the “preservationist” model at the other extreme, which requires the present generation to make substantial sacrifices of denial so as to enhance the environmental legacy; and the “equality” model—favored by Professor Weiss—which says we owe to future generations a global environment in no worse condition than the one we enjoy.
Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
Authors: Nash Marian
Published: April 2006

The material in this section is arranged according to the system employed in the annual Digest of United States Practice in International Law, published by the Department of State.
Terrorism on the High Seas: The Achille Lauro, Piracy and the IMO Convention on Maritime Safety
Authors: Halberstam Malvina
Published: April 2006

On October 7, 1985, the Achille Lauro, an Italian-flag cruise ship, was seized while sailing from Alexandria to Port Said. The hijackers, members of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), had boarded the ship in Genoa, posing as tourists. They held the ship’s crew and passengers hostage, and threatened to kill the passengers unless Israel released 50 Palestinian prisoners. They also threatened to blow up the ship if a rescue mission was attempted. When their demands had not been met by the following afternoon, the hijackers shot Leon Klinghoffer, a Jew of U.S. nationality who was partly paralyzed and in a wheelchair, and threw his body and wheelchair overboard. The United States characterized the seizure as piracy, a position that has been supported by some commentators and opposed by others.