INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMISSION MARKS FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
Press Release
L/2835
INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMISSION MARKS FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
19970708 GENEVA, 8 July (UN Information Service) -- The International Law Commission, which is marking its fiftieth anniversary this year, is currently meeting in Geneva. The Commission is composed of 34 members who serve in their individual capacity as international law experts and represent the principal legal systems of the world. They are elected by the General Assembly for a five-year term. The term of office for the current membership, which began on 1 January, will end in the year 2001.The Commission, which was established on 21 November 1947 by the General Assembly to initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification, has been at the centre of standard setting in its preparation of drafts that have served as the basis for the adoption of legal rules to regulate relations among States.
During its 50 years of existence, the Commission has produced final reports on some 24 topics and has completed draft articles containing basic rules on a variety of topics of public international law. Those sets of draft articles have gone on to serve as the basis for the elaboration and conclusion of international treaties on important subjects of international law. The topics are varied and range from sources of international law to State jurisdiction, from the law of international organizations to the position of the individual in international law, from succession of States to the natural resources and economic relations. The work of the Commission covers almost all areas of public international law.
Some of the most important conventions concluded on the basis of drafts prepared by the Commission have gone on to form the very pillar and foundation of international law governing the relations among States today. Such landmark instruments include the law of diplomatic and consular relations, international criminal law, the law of treaties, the law of international organizations and the law of the sea. The rules based on the drafts prepared by the Commission have in a number of instances been declared to posses the status of customary international law.
The work of the Commission, which is founded in Article 13, paragraph 1 (a) of the United Nations Charter, is also based on the Commission's Statute, which mandates it to "have for its object the promotion of the progressive development of international law and its codification".
Recently, the Commission has added yet another chapter to its record of accomplishments by completing a set of draft articles on the topic of the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. The draft articles were the basis upon which the General Assembly adopted on 21 May a Convention on that topic. The Convention is now open for signature and ratification at United Nations Headquarters. The Convention, which will regulate the equitable and reasonable utilization of international watercourses between or among watercourse States, is designed to serve as a framework agreement that watercourse States could adapt in drawing up specific agreements to govern the equitable and reasonable utilization of an international watercourse shared between or among them.
In the field of international criminal law, the Commission most recently completed a draft statute for an international criminal court, currently under consideration by the General Assembly, which has decided that a conference of plenipotentiaries should be convened in 1998 to conclude a convention on the basis of the draft prepared by the Commission. The Commission has also completed its work on the draft code of crimes against the peace and security of mankind. The crimes that are enumerated in the draft code include genocide, aggression, crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, torture, enslavement, persecution on political, racial, religious or ethnic grounds, among others); crimes against United Nations and associated personnel; and war crimes (such as wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, among others). The General Assembly will decide on the action to be taken at its fifty-third session in 1998.
The work of the Commission on the topic of State responsibility also reached a new stage when it adopted a complete set of draft articles at its last session in 1996 on first reading. The draft articles deal with such diverse legal issues as the responsibility of a State for its internationally wrongful acts; what elements constitute internationally wrongful acts; when a State could be deemed to have committed the wrongful acts in question; when such acts could be defined as international crimes or delict; the consequences for a State of having committed wrongful acts; the defence or circumstances that would preclude wrongfulness, for example, distress, state of necessity, self-defence, and so on; and finally, the rights of the State that is wrongfully injured. Such rights may include reparation, restitution in kind and compensation, among others.
At its current session, the Commission established a working group to review the draft articles further while awaiting the views of governments, after which it will revisit the topic with a view to finalizing its work on the subject.
Also at the current session, the Commission is expected to complete the first reading of a set of draft articles on the topic of the nationality in
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relation to the succession of States. The general outline of the draft articles includes legal principles to be observed by States involved in a succession, specific rules on granting and withdrawal of nationality or granting of the right of option in different cases of State succession, so as to guide States in their negotiations for the resolution of problems of nationality arising from such situations.
The Commission has also on its agenda the topic of reservation to treaties. The objective is to clarify the law relating to this important area of international law: for example, whether the regime of reservations established by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties applies to all treaties, irrespective of their subject matter and the role of monitoring bodies with respect to reservations. The Special Rapporteur on the matter has recommended that the final product should be a guide to the practice in respect of reservations, of States as well as of international organizations.
The Commission will also continue work on the topic of international liability for injurious consequences not prohibited by international law. At the forty-eighth session the working group elaborated a set of draft articles on the subject, on which the views of governments have been sought. The Commission will focus its attention first on the question of "prevention" of damages from hazardous activities, and will defer consideration of the question of "international liability" pending receipt of the views of governments on this question.
In addition, the General Assembly has invited the Commission to examine further the topics of diplomatic protection and unilateral acts of States, and to indicate their scope and content in the light of comments of governments. The study of the topic of diplomatic protection is intended to clarify such issues as the basis for diplomatic protection; the required linkage between the beneficiary and the State exercising diplomatic protection; claimants and respondents in diplomatic protection, that is, who can claim diplomatic protection and against whom; the conditions under which diplomatic protection may be exercised; and the consequences of diplomatic protection. The study of the topic of unilateral acts of State will address such issues as the legal effects and application of unilateral acts; elements that may preclude the validity of such unilateral acts; and the duration, amendment and termination of such unilateral acts.
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