The cross-disciplinary studies in this volume are of special interest because they link human purpose to the present debate between religion and the process of secularization. If that debate is to be a creative one, the notion of the 'human orderer' must be related significantly both to the sacred and secular realms. In fact, if man were not a purposive being, he would have neither religious nor secular problems. Questions about origins and destiny, divine purposiveness and the order of human development, would not arise as topics of human concern. It would appear, then, that few would deny...

Since 1945 there has been a tremendous growth in the number of international organizations, leading to the development of a body of law regulating the relationship between the organizations and their host states. International Organizations and their Host States examines the relationship from a practical perspective. Before examining the legal status, privileges and immunities that have commonly been granted to international organizations, the diverse sources where the law can be found are brought together in a new concept: the host arrangement. This concept forms an anchor for...

The United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL) is the result of dialogue and negotiation between the Salvadorian Government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). It constitutes the first UN attempt to mediate the settlement of an non-international armed conflict. This work studies the benefits and disadvantages intrinsic to a political body in monitoring the respect for international humanitarian law, and analyzes new requirements demanded by the enlargement of the functions of the UN. The analysis is based on the reports of the ONUSAL, prepared during its...

The world is confronted with interdependence and co-operation among peoples, groups and nations. Simultaneously, ethnoreligious and interreligious conflicts as well as religious extremism are causing growing concern in all parts of the globe. In regard to the current protection of freedom of religion or belief two questions arise: why has the United Nations not adopted a legally binding instrument on freedom of religion or belief, and how can the international community ensure effective protection of freedom of religion or belief at the dawn of the 21st century? This volume provides the...

The hope that international adjudication will some day come to replace international aggression has long been a fond aspiration of mankind, and nowhere, perhaps, has it taken firmer root than in the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court has been held up as a model for the successful adjudication of interstate disputes and for the evolution of a body of revered legal norms. Yet America's own record vis-a-vis international adjudication and the International Court has been marked by ambivalence and a sharp dichotomy between rhetoric and deeds. Integrating legal and historical materials...

The World Trade Organization will become the overall and comprehensive multilateral framework for regulating international trade and trade-related matters. Notwithstanding major achievements made during eight years of negotiations, there will be new challenges requiring rules and regulations in areas not yet adequately covered. Economists, lawyers and authors from trade unions and private companies approach the issues of regionalism, labour standards and environmental protection from different angles and from the North-South perspective. The first challenge is to bring about a "level playing...

Whether or not a certain norm is legally binding upon international actors may often depend on whether or not the instrument which contains the norm is to be regarded as a treaty. In this study, the author argues that instruments which contain commitments are, ex hypothesi, treaties. In doing so, he challenges popular notions proclaiming the existence of morally and politically binding agreements and so-called soft law'. Such notions, Klabbers argues, are internally inconsistent and founded upon untenable presumptions. Moreover, they find little support in the pertinent...

In April 1996 the ICJ/UNITAR Colloquium on Increasing the Effectiveness of the Court brought together from all corners of the world judges, legal advisers, practitioners of international law and jurists. It provided an unprecedented opportunity for an in-depth and detailed exchange of views not only on the Court's performance to date, but also on its future role, as well as on possible ways and means of enhancing its operation. There were some fifteen panels, covering subjects ranging from the Court's jurisprudence to its working methods, from assessment of its achievements to...

The Role of the International Court of Justice as the Principal Judicial Organ of the United Nations is a thought-provoking and valuable addition to the existing literature on the ICJ. The book's originality lies in that it provides both the student and practitioner of international law and relations with a comprehensive evaluation of important but hitherto neglected aspects of the work of the World Court: its contribution to the functioning of the UN system; its role in interpreting and developing the institutional law of the UN and in clarifying its purposes and principles,...

This is the first comprehensive study on archipelagic regimes published since the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982. The book traces the historical evolution of the archipelagic concept in international law and examines the definition of archipelagos and archipelagic states. The nature, status and regime of the waters of different types of archipelagos is examined and analysed from the perspective of archipelagic states and is based on the requirement of such states for territorial integrity and self-determination. The book introduces the concept of Ocean...