The Twenty-Fifth Session of the International Law Commission

1974 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 454-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard D. Kearney

At its Twenty-Fifth Session the International Law Commission determined to allot some of its limited time to each of the active subjects on its agenda. The decision was the child of necessity. The Draft Articles on the Representation of States in Their Relations with International Organizations had taken up most of the Commissions sessions in 1969, 1970, and 1971, and the Twenty-Fourth Session in 1972 had, under forced draft, produced the draft articles on the Succession of States to Treaties and on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Diplomatic Agents and Other Internationally Protected Persons. The inevitable byproduct was a mounting pressure, both within the Commission and from the General Assembly, for intensive examination of the draft articles and commentaries on State Responsibility, Succession of States in Matters Other Than Treaties, the Most-Favored-Nation Clause, and the Report on Treaties Concluded Between States and International Organizations.

2012 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald McRae

On November 17, 2011, the UN General Assembly elected the members of the International Law Commission for the next five years. In the course of the quinquennium that was completed in August 2011 with the end of the sixty-third session, the Commission concluded four major topics on its agenda: the law of transboundary aquifers, the responsibility of international organizations, the effect of armed conflicts on treaties, and reservations to treaties. It was by any standard a substantial output. The beginning of a new quinquennium now provides an opportunity to assess what the Commission has achieved, to consider the way it operates, and to reflect on what lies ahead for it.


1993 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H.F. Bekker

The UN General Assembly has recently decided to delete from the agenda of the International Law Commission the topic ‘Relations between States and International Organizations’.Over a period of 31 years, fourteen Reports by two successive Special Rapporteurs studied the topic in two parts. The First part of the topic (1963–1975) dealt with the privileges and immunities of representatives of states to international organizations, and resulted in a Convention, that has, however, not yet entered into force; the Second part of the topic (1976–1992) concentrated on the legal status and immunities of organizations themselves.The author analyzes the Draft Articles that have been submitted in the course of the ILC's study of the Second part. This is done by way of a three-step application of the functional necessity concept of organizational immunities:(1) Status, dealing with an organization's functions, legal personality and capacity-(2) Selection, defining a scale of organizational immunities for which an organization may be eligible - and (3) Scope, determining the extent of selected immunities. Finally, the author employs the two statutory functions of the ILC -the codification of international law and the progressive development of international law- to assess the contribution by the ILC to this field of international institutional law.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-286
Author(s):  
Johan G. Lammers

In December 1958, the General Assembly invited the International Law Commission to consider the question of relations between states and intergovernmental international organizations after undertaking a study of diplomatic intercourse and immunities, consular intercourse and immunities and ad hoc diplomacy. This paper presents a brief overview of the work of the ilc over a period of 30 years, which was led by two Special Rapporteurs: Abdullah El-Erian (1962–1979); and Leonardo Díaz González (1979–1992). In 1992, the ilc decided to discontinue its work on this topic: this paper will outline the main reasons given by the ilc for this decision, and draw some conclusions from the work of the ilc in this area.


2013 ◽  
Vol 107 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean D. Murphy

The International Law Commission held its sixty-fourth session in Geneva from May 7 to June 1, and from July 2 to August 3, 2012, under the chairmanship of Lucius Caflisch. The session marked the first year of a new quinquennium (2012–2016), with the Commission having completed its work during the prior quinquennium (2007–2011) on four major topics: transboundary aquifers, effects of armed conflict on treaties, reservations to treaties, and responsibility of international organizations.


1973 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard D. Kearney

The agenda that faced the International Law Commission at the first meeting of the 24th session on May 2, 1972, was a formidable one. The 23rd session in 1971, despite an extension to fourteen weeks in place of the usual ten, had been able to complete work on the draft articles on the Representation of States in their Relations with International Organizations only by concentrating on that subject to the substantial exclusion of other topics. As a consequence the Commission had not made any real progress on the other active subjects before it, which included State Succession in respect of treaties and in respect of matters other than treaties, as divide between two Special Rapporteurs, State Responsibility, the Most-Favoured-Nation Clause, and Treaty Law of International Organizations. In addition, the Commission had before it another piece of unfinished business, the review of its longterm program of work in light of the wide-ranging and thoughtful “Survey of International Law” which had been prepared in 1971 by the U.N. Secretariat at the Commission request.


1989 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 937-945 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen C. McCaffrey

The International Law Commission of the United Nations held its 41st session from May 2 to July 21, 1989, under the Chairmanship of Professor Bernhard Graefrath. The most noteworthy achievement of the session was the completion of work on the status of the diplomatic courier and the diplomatic bag not accompanied by diplomatic courier. The Commission referred this draft to the General Assembly with the recommendation that the Assembly convoke a diplomatic conference for the purpose of concluding a convention on the basis of the articles. Also at the 41st session, the Commission adopted three articles of the Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind and discussed reports on state responsibility, international liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law, jurisdictional immunities of states and their property, and the law of the non-navigational uses of international watercourses. A report on relations between states and international organizations was presented to the Commission but was not discussed for lack of time. Finally, the Commission once again devoted a number of meetings to reviewing its procedures and methods of work.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Marcelo Vázquez-Bermúdez ◽  
Alfredo Crosato

Abstract Continuing its work on the sources of international law, the International Law Commission decided, at its seventieth session, to include the topic “General principles of law” in its current programme of work. By taking up the topic, the Commission aims to shed light on various aspects of this source and provide guidance to States, international organizations, courts and tribunals and all others that may be called upon to deal with general principles of law. The present article provides an overview of the first debate on the topic that took place within the International Law Commission and the Sixth (Legal) Committee of the UN General Assembly in 2019, focusing on certain key issues that will be central to the treatment of the topic.


1983 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen C. McCaffrey

The 34th session of the international Law Commission was held in Geneva from May 3 to July 23, 1982, and was chaired by the Commission’s dean, Professor Paul Reuter of France. This was the first meeting of the Commission in its new and enlarged composition. Its composition was new in the sense that all of its members were beginning a new 5-year term of office, the term of the former Commission having expired at the end of 1981. It was enlarged as a result of a decision taken by the General Assembly at its session in the fall of 1981 to expand the membership of the ILC from 25 to 34.


Author(s):  
Jordi Bonet

A most-favored-nation clause (MFNC) is a specific treaty provision “whereby a State [the granting State] undertakes an obligation towards another State [the beneficiary State] to accord most-favored treatment in an agreed sphere of relations” (Article 4 of the draft on most-favored-nation clauses adopted by the International Law Commission at its thirtieth session in 1978). The general purpose of a MFNC is to grant most favored treatment (MFNT) within spheres of relations generally connected to areas of bilateral or multilateral intergovernmental cooperation varying in scope. MFNT is a standard of treatment accorded by the granting state to the beneficiary state, or to persons or things in a determined relationship with that state; this means that MFNT could also be employed to benefit persons or things that have an identified link with the beneficiary state (for example, citizenship or product origin) and not only in reciprocal interstate relationships. The International Law Commission (ILC) points out that MFNT involves granting treatment not less favorable than treatment extended by the granting state to a third state or to persons or things in the same relationship with that third state; the ILC prefers the wording “not less favorable” to the alternative “equal treatment” because it is the phrase commonly used in MFNCs and because MFNCs cannot prevent the granting state from bestowing on the beneficiary state additional advantages to those applied to the most-favored third state. In sum, the purpose of MFNCs is to maintain fundamental equality among all the states concerned in the relevant fields. On the other hand, even if MFNT could theoretically arise from the unilateral conduct of states, whether or not based on reciprocity or on nonbinding instruments (as political agreements), conventional MFNCs inserted in international treaties have become the most effective tool to ensure MFNT and its reciprocal extension to all parties since unilateral clauses granting such treatment are, if in use at all, rather exceptional nowadays.


1984 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen C. McCaffrey

The 35th session of the International Law Commission was held in Geneva from May 3 to July 22, 1983 under the chairmanship of Ambassador Laurel Francis. The Commission considered all seven substantive items on its agenda: state responsibility; jurisdictional immunities of states and their property; status of the diplomatic courier and the diplomatic bag not accompanied by diplomatic courier; the Draft Code of Offences against the Peace and Security of Mankind; the law of the non-navigational uses of international watercourses; international liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law; and relations between states and international organizations (second part of the topic). The Drafting Committee, which met a record 30 times, reported out a total of 15 articles concerning three of the above topics (jurisdictional immunities, state responsibility and the diplomatic courier and bag), all of which were provisionally adopted by the Commission. The entire session is dealt with in some detail in the Commission’s 1983 report to the General Assembly. Only the highlights will be covered here.


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