Search results

The acquired rights doctrine limits the ability of an international organisation (io) to unilaterally amend a staff member's conditions of employment to his or her detriment. The leading international administrative tribunals, especially the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organisation or the ILOAT refined and developed the doctrine's meaning and scope over decades. There has been a general consensus that the acquired rights doctrine protects a staff member's essential terms of employment both retrospectively and prospectively. However, in its recent jurisprudence, the United Nations Appeals Tribunal or the UNAT has rendered the acquired rights doctrine with little work to do by reducing it to the principle of non- retroactivity. As a result, the consensus as to the doctrine's core meaning is now undermined. International civil servants having access to the ILOAT are much better protected from unilateral adverse amendments to their conditions of employment when compared to those international public officials whose organisations have subscribed to the jurisdiction of the UNAT. This is an unwelcome development for the content of substantive protections is now more dependent on the tribunal approach, as opposed to a coherent development of the law.

Negotiation in violent international conflict has not often been studied using systematic large- N comparisons. This article utilizes an original dataset of international disputes and negotiation efforts occurring in the 1945-95 period to assess the character of international negotiation and to examine the contextual and process variables which affect negotiation outcomes. These variables are classed under three categories: (1) the nature of the dispute; (2) the nature of the parties and their ongoing relationship; and (3) conflict management characteristics, or process factors. In the study, a preliminary analysis is undertaken to determine the nature and degree to which the variables in each of these categories affect negotiation outcomes. The results indicate that from the first two categories, dispute intensity, dispute complexity, the underlying issues, the relative power of the parties, the alignment of the parties, and the parties' previous relations all impact on negotiation outcomes. In the third category, the timing, site, initiator, and rank of the negotiators all emerge as significant factors. The article presents conclusions on the effectiveness of international negotiation in resolving violent international disputes, and points the way for more much-needed empirical work in this area.

1. Internationale Regime als Steuerungsinstrumente der Umweltpolitik -- 2. Entstehung und Wandel des globalen Regimes zum Schutz der Ozonschicht -- 3. Das internationale Regime über weiträumige grenzüberschreitende Luftverschmutzung -- 4. Die internationale Kontrolle des grenzüberschreitenden Handels mit gefährlichen Abfällen (Baseler Konvention von 1989) -- 5. Routinemäßige Ölverschmutzung durch Tanker (OILPOL/MARPOL) -- 6. Das internationale Regime zur zivilrechtlichen Haftung für Ölverschmutzungsschäden -- 7. Abfallentsorgung auf See: Die Londoner Konvention von 1972 -- 8. Das Regime zum Schutz der Ostsee -- 9. Internationale Bemühungen zum Schutz des Rheins -- 10. Das Washingtoner Artenschutzabkommen (CITES) von 1973 -- 11. Das Regime über die biologische Vielfalt von 1992 -- 12. Das internationale Regime zum Schutz des Klimas -- 13. Fazit: Internationale Umweltpolitik durch Verhandlungen und Verträge -- Abkürzungsverzeichnis -- Autorinnen und Autoren.

The opinion of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, delivered January 28, 1937, in the case of Attorney-General for Canada v. Attorney- General for Ontario,1 voids certain "new deal" measures 2 of the Dominion of Canada. This opinion is important not alone because it has given a harsh blow to social legislationin the Dominion, and because the judgment is a reminder of one of the last vestiges of Imperial authority over Canada, these aspectsof the judgment being internal to the British Commonwealth, but also important are the external aspects. These involve the power of Canada to give effect to treaty obligations assumed by the Dominion as a member of the international community.

In a recent editorial of one of the legal periodicals, the author quotes Alexander Hamilton's statement in the Federalist, that "it is essential to the idea of law that it be attended with a sanction, or in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience," and from this premise draws the following conclusion: "The law of nations, so-called, is a mere empty term or phrase, a high resounding name for something in and of itself vain and impotent."To most authorities and students of international law, the author's conclusion is somewhat astounding, but the fact that the statement could be made by a prominent legal editor, illustrates the extent of the present popular distrust of the science.

Oil Companies in the International System (1978) provides an original and wide-ranging examination of the impact that the leading oil companies have had on international relations. It looks at the interplay between the oil companies and the governments of both the industrialised and oil-producing countries.