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The Forty-Sixth Session of the International Law Commission

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Robert Rosenstock*
Affiliation:
International Law Commission

Extract

The International Law Commission of the United Nations held its forty-sixth session from May 2 to July 22, 1994, under the chairmanship of Professor Vladlin Vereshchetin of Russia.

The Commission had one of its most productive sessions. It completed a second draft of a statute for an international criminal court; completed its second reading on nonnavigational uses of international watercourses; completed, provisionally on first reading, a discrete portion of its work on liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law; considered aspects of state responsibility; began its second reading on the Draft Code of Crimes; and appointed Vaclav Mikulka and Alain Pellet, respectively, as special rapporteurs for the new topics of “State succession and its impact on the nationality of natural and legal persons” and “the law and practice relating to reservations to treaties.” It is the intention of the Commission to conclude its work on these two topics during the current term, i.e., by 1996.

Type
Current Developments
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1995

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References

1 Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its forty-sixth session, UN GAOR, 49th Sess., Supp. No. 10, at 382, 383, UN Doc. A/49/10 (1994) [hereinafter 1994 ILC Report].

2 Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its forty-fifth session, UN GAOR, 48th Sess., Supp. No. 10, UN Doc. A/48/10 (1993).

3 See UN Doc. A/CN.4/458 and Adds. 1–8, and UN Doc. A/CN.4/457 (1994).

4 1994 ILC Report, supra note 1, at 44.

5 For a detailed discussion of the proposed Draft Statute, see James Crawford, The ILC Adopts a Statute for an International Criminal Court, infra p. 404.

6 GA Res. 49/53 (Dec. 9, 1994).

7 UN Doc. A/CN.4/460 and Corr. 1 (1994); 1994 ILC Report, supra note 1, at 162.

8 UN Doc. A/CN.4/448 and Add.1 (1993).

9 1994 ILC Report, supra note 1, at 165.

10 Id. at 186.

11 Id. at 196.

12 Id. at 185.

13 For a detailed discussion of the watercourses articles, see Stephen C. McCaffrey, The International Law Commission Adopts Draft Articles on International Watercourses, infra p. 395.

14 1994 ILC Report, supra note 1, at 319.

15 Trail Smelter (U.S. v. Can.), 3 R.I.A.A. 1911 (1941).

16 1994 ILC Report, supra note 1, at 326.

17 GA Res. 49/52 (Dec. 9, 1994).

18 UN Doc. A/CN.4/461/Add.3 (1994).

19 Article 19 reads as follows:

International crimes and international delicts

1. An act of a State which constitutes a breach of an international obligation is an internationally wrongful act, regardless of the subject-matter of the obligation breached.

2. An internationally wrongful act which results from the breach by a State of an international obligation so essential for the protection of fundamental interests of the international community that its breach is recognized as a crime by that community as a whole, constitutes an international crime.

3. Subject to paragraph 2, and on the basis of the rules of international law in force, an international crime may result, inter alia, from:

(a) a serious breach of an international obligation of essential importance for the maintenance of international peace and security, such as that prohibiting aggression;

(b) a serious breach of an international obligation of essential importance for safeguarding the right of self-determination of peoples, such as that prohibiting the establishment or maintenance by force of colonial domination;

(c) a serious breach on a widespread scale of an international obligation of essential importance for safeguarding the human being, such as those prohibiting slavery, genocide and apartheid;

(d) a serious breach of an international obligation of essential importance for the safeguarding and preservation of the human environment, such as those prohibiting massive pollution of the atmosphere or of the seas.

4. Any internationally wrongful act which is not an international crime in accordance with paragraph 2, constitutes an international delict.

Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its twenty-eighth session, [1976] 2 Y.B. Int'l L. Comm'n, pt. 2, at 95–96, UN Doc. A/CN.4/SER.A/1976/Add.1 (pt. 2).

20 Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Co., Ltd. (Belg. v. Spain), 1970 ICJ Rep. 3 (Feb. 5).

21 1994 ILC Report, supra note 1, at 367.

22 UN Doc. A/CN.4/SR.2362, at 7 (1994).

23 Id.

24 UN Doc. A/CN.4/459(1994).