Cases and Materials on International Law

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Description
There have been many developments in international law since the last edition of this casebook. As always, there were important judicial and arbitral cases. Chief among these was the Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius case before the International Court of Justice. Here the Court advised that the United Kingdom had infringed the principle of self-determination when separating the Archipelago from Mauritius during de-colonisation and that the United Kingdom was obliged to bring to an end its administration there. The opinion was strongly endorsed by the UN General Assembly but rejected by the state concerned. Of political import too was the ruling of the International Criminal Court that "head of state" immunity could not bar pro- ceedings before the Court initiated by the UN Security Council, even though the state concerned was not a party to the Court's Statute (Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir case). Elsewhere, there were key judgments and awards on the law of the sea. These included cases before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, now an established part of the international judicial firmament. Most notably, the Tribunal issued provisional measures ordering the Russian Federation to release and return Ukrainian naval vessels and resolved a long-standing maritime boundary dispute between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. And arbitral tribunals decided that the Russian Federation had acted illegally in seizing a Greenpeace vessel and arresting campaigners seeking to board an oil production platform (Arctic Sunrise Arbitration) and rejected claims by China to maritime entitlement in the seas surrounding the Spratly Islands (South China Sea Arbitration). There were also developments in the UN international human rights system. The Human Rights Committee made further progress in replacing early General Comments by others reflecting its now extensive practice in the post-Cold War period. General Comment No 36 on Article 6: Right to Life is the latest example. The treaty monitoring bodies generally adopted views on an increasing number of individual communications. The UN Human Rights Committee found that legislation prohibiting the wearing of a face veil in a public place violated freedom of religion (Yaker v France) and that laws severely restricting resort to abortion infringed, inter alia, the right to privacy (Whelan v Ireland). A new departure were the first views of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in individual communication cases, including S.C. and G.P. v Italy on in vitro fertilisation and the right to health.
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Contents
1. Introduction
    1.    International Law as "Law"
    2.    The Development of International Law
2. The sources of international law
    1.    Generally
    2.    Custom
    3.    Treaties
    4.    General Principles of Law
    5.    Judicial Decisions
    6.    Writers
    7.    Unilateral Acts of States
    8.    General Assembly Resolutions
    9.    "Soft Law"
    10.  Codification and Progressive Development of International Law
3. International law and municipal law
    1.    Monism and Dualism
    2.    Municipal Law in International Law
    3.    International Law in Municipal Law
    4.    The Executive Certificate
4. Personality
    1.    Generally
    2.    States
    3.    Mandated and Trust Territories
    4.    Other Legal Persons
    5.    Recognition of States and Governments
    6.    The Effect of Recognition in British Courts
5. Territory
    1.   Introductory Note
    2.    Title to Territory
    3.    Polar Regions
    4.    Land Boundaries
    5.    Airspace
    6.    Outer Space
    7.    Rights in Foreign Territory
6. State jurisdiction
    1.    Introductory Note
    2.    Civil Jurisdiction
    3.    Criminal Jurisdiction
    4.    State Immunity
    5.    Diplomatic Immunity
7. The law of the sea
    1.    Introductory Note
    2.    The Territorial Sea
    3.    The High Seas
    4.    The Exclusive Economic Zone
    5.    The Continental Shelf
    6.    Maritime Boundaries
    7.    The Deep Sea-Bed
    8.    Settlement of Disputes
8. State responsibility
    1.    Introductory Note
    2.    The Theory of Responsibility
    3.    The Treatment of Aliens
9. Human rights
    1.    Introduction
    2.    Action through the United Nations
    3.    Customary International Law
10. The law of treaties
    1.    Introductory Note
    2.    General Considerations
    3.    The Making of Treaties
    4.    Observance and Application of Treaties
    5.    Treaty Interpretation
    6.    Third States
    7.    Validity of Treaties
    8.    Termination of, Suspension of and Withdrawal from Treaties
    9.    General Provisions on the Invalidity, Termination and Suspension of Treaties
    10.  Registration of Treaties
11. The use of force
    1.    Introduction Note
    2.    The Unilateral Use of Force by States
    3.    Collective Measures through the United Nations
12. Arbitration and judicial settlement of disputes
    1.    Introductory Note
    2.    Arbitration
    3.    The World Court
Index
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Author Details
David Harris, LL.M., Ph.D., C.M.G. Emeritus Professor in Residence and Co-Director
Human Rights Law Centre,  University of Nottingham.
Sandesh Sivakumaran, University Reader in International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge
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