This article takes stock of the contribution of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to the development of international environmental law. It examines in this regard the jurisdiction of the tribunal and provides an overview of its environmental jurisprudence. It then assesses the potential role of ITLOS in relation to some marine environmental challenges ahead. In particular, it considers the possibility of a request for an advisory opinion on climate change, the settlement of disputes regarding deep seabed mining, and the potential role of the tribunal under a new legal instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.

NATO’s seventy-nine-day campaign of air strikes againstthe Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has sparked awide-ranging debate as to the legality of suchmilitary action. NATO has consistently justified itsintervention on humanitarian grounds, thus clearlyresorting to the controversial doctrine of“humanitarian intervention.” The author argues thatwhile a conventional analysis of the purported rightof unilateral humanitarian intervention underinternational law and of NATO’s acts on the Kosovoissue might lead some individuals to the conclusionthat such acts were illegal (or, at best, of dubiouslegality), this conclusion fails to take intoaccount the fact that state actors, particularlywhen acting in concert, tend to influence thecontent of international law itself. The authorsuggests that the true significance of NATO’sforcible intervention in the Kosovo crisis is thatit sets a clear precedent that may well crystallizean emergent norm of customary international lawpermitting forcible intervention by one or morestates against another on humanitarian grounds, evenwithout prior UN Security Council authorization.While such a norm may acquire universal status, itis also possible, in light of the regionalconcentration of the primary actors involved as wellas of important objections from some quarters as toits legality, that it will acquire (at least in thefirst instance) a local or regional character,perhaps confined to the Euro-Atlantic area.

The Arctic, long neglected, has been thrust into the limelight as climate change dramatically transforms its landscape. The ice, which for centuries has acted as a powerful barrier keeping the world at bay, is melting at an alarming rate. The promise of greater accessibility to the region inevitably raises a host of important issues. Donat Pharand, an internationally renowned scholar, has dedicated his long and illustrious career to researching and understanding the legal issues pertaining to Canada's claim over the waters of the Arctic archipelago. This article chronicles the key events in his life and examines Pharand's profound contribution to the law of the sea of the Arctic.

Article 26 of the Mandate by which Great Britain administered Palestine required disputes between league members to be submitted to the Permanent Court if they “cannot be settled by negotiation.” In the Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions case, Great Britain contended that discussions with Greece, the complainant, had been so brief as not to amount to negotiations, insisting that in negotiations parties must at least define their positions and consider each other's views. Although intergovernmental exchanges had not reached this point, the Court held that prior discussions between Mavrommatis and British authorities had so defined the relevant issues that the Greek government could rely on these talks, in conjunction with its own protests, to satisfy the negotiations requirement.

Judge Moore, in dissent, believed that negotiations should be limited to intergovernmental discussions because issues raised by individuals cannot define the positions open to governments. Moreover, negotiations should proceed in an ordered, even rational manner.

The 1960’s have been designated by the General Assembly as “United Nations Development Decade.” The main economic objective for the decade is the creation of conditions in which the national incomes of the developing countries will increase by 5 per cent yearly by 1970, and will continue to increase at the same rate thereafter. The means by which this objective is being pursued are many; among others are national planning, technical training and capital assistance, by both multilateral and bilateral agencies. Successful as these public sector assistance schemes have been, however, it is now recognized that an increasingly large share of responsibility must be borne by the private sector of the economies of the developed nations by means of overseas investment and international trade.

The proliferation of private military and securitycompanies has attracted significant public andscholarly attention during the last decade. Thiscomment examines the United Nations DraftInternational Convention on the Regulation,Oversight and Monitoring of Private Military andSecurity Companies (Draft Convention). It discussesthe significance of the Draft Convention and thendescribes the approach taken to the regulation ofthis controversial topic. Several problematicelements of the Draft Convention are identifiedincluding the definition of prohibited activities,State responsibility for the conduct of privatemilitary and security companies and the proposedInternational Criminal Court referral mechanism.Finally, specific policy recommendations are madefor the government of Canada as a home state andcontracting state of private military and securityservices, irrespective of the progress ofnegotiations on the Draft Convention.

Les cours d’eau et les lacs internationaux sont l’objet d’utilisations multiples, dont certaines suscitent des problèmes de voisinage entre les Etats. La présente étude s’intéressera à quelques-uns de ces problèmes et exposera les principales règles auxquelles on a eu recours, tant en Europe occidentale qu’en Amérique du Nord, pour les résoudre. I1 sera tour à tour question de la délimitation des frontières fluviales et lacustres, de la navigation fluviale et de l’utilisation industrielle et agricole des cours d’eau internationaux.

This article deals with the sea level rise phenomenon caused by the climate change process and its impact on the statehood of so-called disappearing island states as well as on the consequent factual and legal status of their populations. In classical international law doctrine, the loss of a state’s territory will lead to the extinction of statehood and, consequently, the loss of that state’s international legal personality, and possibly also to the statelessness of its nationals. This article proposes an alternative solution based on the transformation of disappearing island states into new non-territorial subjects of international law — “climate deterritorialized nations” — as successors to disappeared inundated states.

This comment addresses the question of the succession of states to obligations arising from the commission of internationally wrongful acts in the specific context of secession. It examines state practice and case law, which shows that the continuator state usually continues its own previous responsibility for internationally wrongful acts committed before the date of succession, notwithstanding the transformation affecting its territory. A more controversial issue is whether this principle of non-succession should always apply in the context of secession and whether there should not be some circumstances where the secessionist state should be responsible for internationally wrongful acts committed before the date of succession. This question is never addressed in doctrine. This article argues that there are, indeed, at least five different circumstances under which the new state should take over obligations arising from internationally wrongful acts committed before the date of succession.

Canadian lawyers and all those interested in international affairs will be pleased to know that the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly concluded on November 15, 1990 its deliberations on the report of the working group on the United Nations Decade of International Law (“the Vukas Report”) under the chairmanship of Professor Budislav Vukas of Yugoslavia (“the Vukas Committee”). The Vukas Report sets out the proposed program of activities for the first period of the Decade, being the period 1990-92, and represents another important step towards the implementation of Resolution 44/23 of November 17, 1989, and the fulfilment of the aspirations connected with that resolution for strengthening the international legal order. The Report was well received by the delegations of states to the Sixth Committee and on November 19, 1990, the General Assembly adopted by consensus the program of activities set out in the Report, the Decade thus achieving more tangible form.

Recently, there has been a proliferation of international agreements imposing minimum standards on states in respect of their treatment of foreign investors and allowing investors to initiate dispute settlement proceedings where a state violates these standards. Of greatest significance to Canada is Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which provides both standards for state behaviour and the right to initiate binding arbitration. Since 1996, four cases have been brought under Chapter 11. This note describes the Chapter 11 process and suggests some of the issues that may arise as it is increasingly resorted to by investors.

The teaching of international law at Queen’s University in its early years took place mainly in the faculty of arts and science. The first, short-lived, law school offered a course of lectures from 1861 to 1864 and again from 1880 to 1883, when the faculty was disbanded, not to re-open until 1957. During the period 1861 to 1864 no specific course in international law was offered in the law school or in the faculty of arts.

When lectures in the law school resumed in 1880, one of the courses offered was Roman Law, for which one lecture per week was given. The texts to be consulted in this course included, strange to say, Kent’s Commentary on International Law and Wheaton’s Elements of International Law. It is possible that at this time instruction in international law was offered in the faculty of arts as well as in the law school. For example, in the examination for the gold medal in political economy the following question was asked: “Would abolition of tolls on the Welland Canada be a Free Trade or Protective measure? How does the Treaty of Washington affect the imposition of those tolls?” The second part of the question indicates that some reference to the law of treaties might have been made during the teaching of the course.