The participation by the Commonwealth of Australia in international affairs requires it to enter into relations with other states and international organisations which are regulated by a body of law that is in many respects imperfectly defined and interpreted in divergent ways. Since the close of the Second World War, numerous concerted attempts have been made to settle more definitively the content of the customary law applicable in important areas of international life, and to amend that law to take account of changing political, economic and technological conditions.