Review of the commission’s long-term programme of work: "Survey of international law" prepared by the secretary-general (A/CN.4/245)

1972 ◽  
pp. 205-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Secretary General

Defining the Environment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cymie R. Payne
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Jus Post Bellum ◽  
Complex Concept ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Environmental Integrity ◽  
Healthy Functioning

The principle of ‘environmental integrity’ is a fundamental aspect of jus post bellum. Human life, economy, and culture depend on a healthy, functioning environment. However, environmental integrity is a complex concept to describe. Doctrinal thresholds for legally material environmental damage (significant, long-term, widespread) do not capture it. This chapter interrogates the jus post bellum literature and then turns to scholarship on wilderness management in the Anthropocene era, which also engages with the meaning of ‘environmental integrity’, ‘naturalness’, ‘unimpaired’, or, in the words of the Factory at Chorzów case which sets the international law standard for reparations of damage, ‘the situation which would, in all probability, have existed if that act had not been committed’. Recognition that pristine or historical conditions are often impossible to recover or maintain leads to the legal, ethical, and scientific analysis of evolving environmental norms that this chapter offers.

Marine Environmental Damage: The Compensability of Ecosystem Service Loss in International Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 602-641
Author(s):  
Günther Handl
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Full Compensation ◽  
Environmental Loss ◽  
National Practice ◽  
Marine Environmental

AbstractKey maritime conventions governing liability and compensation for pollution of the marine environment, foremost among them the 1992 Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Convention and the 2003 Supplementary Fund Protocol (the CLC/Fund regime), exclude compensation for pure environmental loss. This article discusses whether anything less than full compensation of damage to the marine environment, including the loss of ecosystem services, comports with contemporary international public policy or law. After reviewing and rejecting traditional arguments opposing such compensability, the article contrasts the CLC/Fund regime’s environmental claims practice with emerging trends in decision on the international legal plane and in select domestic legal systems, all of which support full compensation. The article thus concludes that an adjustment of the CLC/Fund regime’s environmental claims approach is desirable to align it with this international (and national) practice and thereby to protect the long-term integrity of the regime itself.

The Fifty-Sixth Session of the International Law Commission

2005 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Matheson
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Diplomatic Protection ◽  
Sixth Session ◽  
International Liability ◽  
International Law Commission ◽  
Fragmentation Of International Law ◽  
Law Commission

The International Law Commission held its fifty-sixdi session in Geneva from May 3 to June 4, and from July 5 to August 6, 2004, under the chairmanship of Teodor Melescanu of Romania. The Commission completed its first reading of draft principles on international liability for transboundary harm and draft articles on diplomatic protection, which have now been submitted for comment by states with a view to their completion in 2006. The Commission also continued its work on reservations to treaties, responsibility of international organizations, unilateral acts of states, fragmentation of international law, and shared natural resources. In addition, the Commission decided to start work next year on the effect of armed conflict on treaties and the expulsion of aliens, and to recommend adding a new topic—the obligation to prosecute or extradite—to its long-term program. The following is a summary of where each topic stands and what issues are likely to be most prominent at the Commission's 2005 session.

Improving the Operation and Functioning of the International Criminal Tribunals

2000 ◽  
Vol 94 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daryl A. Mundis
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Expert Group ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
International Tribunals ◽  
The United Nations

Since the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, both International Tribunals have grown tremendously in terms of resources. Despite this growth, the International Tribunals have rendered judgments in only fifteen cases and conducted inordinately long trials—a fault for which, perhaps more than any other, they can be justly criticized. The Secretary- General of the United Nations recently appointed an expert group to review the efficiency of the operation of the International Tribunals and make recommendations for improvement. Following the release of the group's report, the General Assembly requested that the Secretary-General obtain comments from the International Tribunals on the experts’ recommendations. The ICTYjudges, for their part, considered these recommendations in a report to the United Nations setting forth a long-term strategy for improving the operation of the Tribunal.

The International Law Commission Tomorrow: Improving its Organization and Methods of Work

1991 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Graefrath
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Term Effect ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Long Term Effect ◽  
The Law ◽  
International Law Commission ◽  
Law Commission

The history, operation and tasks of the International Law Commission (ILC) have often been described and its success in codifying general international law is well-known and widely acknowledged. The conduct of international relations today is unthinkable without such basic instruments, first drafted by the Commission, as the conventions on diplomatic and consular relations, the law of treaties and the law of the sea. Moreover, other ILC drafts that have not been adopted as treaties have had a long-term effect on the development of international law; for example, the Draft Declaration on the Rights and Duties of States, the Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nürnberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal, and the Model Rules on Arbitral Procedure.

An International Relations Perspective on the Reform Needs of the Human Rights Council

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-80
Author(s):  
Wolfgang S. Heinz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Subject

Abstract: This article approaches the matter of institutional reform of the United Nations Human Rights Council from an international relations perspective. A well-known tension exists between State representatives acting for their governments in international organisations, but whose decisions are presented as UN policies. The latter should be guided primarily by the UN Charter and public international law. However, in reality, different worldviews and foreign policy considerations play a more significant role. In a comprehensive stock-take, the article looks at four major dimensions of the Council, starting with structure and dynamics and major trends, followed by its country and thematic activities, and the role of key actors. Council reform proposals from both States and civil society are explored. Whilst the intergovernmental body remains the most important authority responsible for the protection of human rights in the international sphere, it has also been the subject of considerable criticism. Although it has made considerable progress towards enlarging its coverage and taking on more challenging human rights crises, among some of its major weaknesses are the election of human rights-unfriendly countries into its ranks, the failure to apply stronger sanctions on large, politically influential countries in the South and North, and lack of influence on human rights crises and chronic human rights problems in certain countries. Whilst various reform proposals have emerged from States and NGOs, other more far reaching propositions are under sometimes difficult negotiations. In the mid- to long-term, the UN human rights machinery can only have a stronger and more lasting impact if support from national/local actors and coalitions in politics and society can be strengthened.

International Legal Sanction Processes

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Paust
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Legal Sanction ◽  
Long Term Consequences ◽  
The Creation

This article views international legal sanction processes as richly varied and dynamic, involving numerous types of participants, with various sanction objectives, operating in both formal and less formal fora or processes, utilizing various types of resources, with varied effects and long-term consequences. It identifies certain areas of debate and suggests a future scholarly agenda. With that in mind, it is evident that increasing attention to the creation, shaping, and efficacy of international law outside such traditional institutional settings should be part of a future scholarly agenda regardless of one's jurisprudential bias. The discussion covers participants in the sanction process, sanction objectives, formal fora, less formal processes, and more specific sanction strategies or problems.

Stakeholder Theory and Justice Issues: The Leap from Business Management to Contemporary International Law

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-180
Author(s):  
Bronik Matwijkiw ◽  
Anja Matwijkiw
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Stakeholder Theory ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Business Management ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The United Nations

AbstractIn this article, the two authors examine the leap from business management to contemporary international law in the context of stakeholder theory. Because stakeholder theory was developed for business management, they provide a thorough account of the original framework. Furthermore, to illustrate the theory's application as a recently adopted parameter for the United Nations, they use former Secretary-General Kofi Atta Annan's 2004-report to the Security Council, "The Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies". Proceeding on the hypothesis that while all premises ultimately match traditional positions in general jurisprudence, it appears that stakeholder theory nevertheless forces the United Nations to take sides in an unprecedented manner, especially pertaining to rights-typology and the credentials-checking for this. Finally, some of the most important implications are distilled as part of an attempt to formulate a few recommendations for United Nations justice managers and administrators.

An Analysis of Some of the Principal Legal Questions Relating to U.N. Weapons Inspections in Iraq

1998 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-273
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Ballistic Missile ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Chemical Weapons ◽  
Legal Questions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Kofi Annan

AbstractThe multi-year U.N. weapons inspection program in Iraq has encountered numerous difficulties. Its basic objectives have been to ascertain the extent of Iraq's atomic, biological, and chemical weapons, and ballistic missile systems, and then to undertake efforts designed to eliminate such and complicate that nation's ability to reconstruct that arsenal. A wide variety of legal issues surround the operation of the inspection program. Some of these arise from the seminal U.N. resolutions on the subject, and associated operational documents drafted by the Secretary-General, while others arise from the February 23, 1998, Memorandum of Understanding between Secretary Kofi Annan and the Iraqi government. In this article, six of the principal legal issues are subjected to analysis. It is suggested that ambiguity affects some, but not all of the issues. Nevertheless, the ambiguity that is extant, though presenting the potential for complex and unsettling difficulties, has permitted the development of an inspection regime unprecedented in international law.

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