Suchergebnisse

The eventual product of the International Law Commission's (ILC) work on state immunity hasbeen in the form of a Convention. This prompts the question whether widespread ratification (or accession etc) will be necessary for clear rules of international law on state immunity to become firmlyestablished or whether a substantial codifying effect could be achieved even if the Convention does not attract a great number of parties. The latter has sometimes been said of much of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. As the law on state immunity has undergone much of its substantial development by practice of national courts (albeit that the piecemeal adoption and implementation of treaties has played some part), could this process not simply continue with the Convention providing guidance or a model? If the trend from absolute to restrictive immunity could occur by development of customary law, are there not still adequate means of consolidating customary law without the need for states actually to become parties to the treaty?

For most international travellers by air the Warsaw Convention, if it impinges on their consciousness at all, probably only raises a faint association with limitation of liability and with warning notices in various sizes of print on a passenger's ticket or ticket envelope. Only the most serious dearth of alternative reading, lack of airport facilities or unusual curiosity would be likely to induce an air traveller to read all the conditions and notices on the ticket.

Many, if not most, matters regulated by international law tend now to bring into issue obligations under treaties. Yet even if a dispute centres on interpretation of a particular treaty provision, the text of the treaty will not necessarily be the sole consideration. More often than not tribunals look to preparatory work of a treaty, sometimes almost as a first resort rather than as a subsidiary means of interpretation; and both formal and less formal instruments associated with a treaty—declarations, reservations and a whole range of possible materials—may be relevant to the particular matter. All these are described here as "treaty materials" and it is the present purpose to explore the scope and role of such materials.