The UN High Level Panel Report, published in December, takes a comprehensive approach and is very frank in analysing the threats to international peace and security and their rootcauses. Its analysis and recommendations range from economic and social challenges to the use of force. This article discusses in particular the role and tasks that the High Level Panel envisages for the Security Council in light of the threats and challenges it identified. With the events of 11 September 2001 as the pivotal moment in history, the Panel nevertheless does not recommend or insist on fundamental changes of international legal paradigms, including in the (collective) use of force. The Panel's focus on reform of Security Council composition instead of the system that it operates neglects the problems with the latter and the impossibility of achieving the former.

Books and Articles in the Field of the Prevention and Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes (Summer 2005) Compiled by Ingrid Kost exclusively from materials available in the Peace Palace Library, The Hague

With the launch of the UN International Decade for Water on 22 March 2005, awareness is raised in the international community of the growing demand and scarcity of water for people throughout the world. Water is a particularly scarce resource in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The use of the water resources of the West Bank and Gaza has been part and parcel of the Israeli–Palestinian peace negotiations. With the beginning of new peace negotiations under Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, the topic of water and its allocation to Palestinians and Israelis is back on the negotiation table. The present article will point to the water crisis in Israel and the Palestinian Territories and analyse core provisions of international law which govern the use of water resources. Finally, it will outline how an allocation of water rights according to principles of international law could take place.

In its Taylor decision the Special Court for Sierra Leone denied immunity ratione personae to the, at the time of the indictment, President of Liberia. This article first analyzes the legal reasoning of that decision. The Court's finding that it is an international court is approved; the consequence it attaches to that finding is criticized. The decision is then presented as an illustration of the negative consequences of relying upon controversial elements of the ICJ's Arrest Warrant case. It is suggested that instead of the distinction between national and international courts, the difference between criminal responsibility and procedural immunity could have been the basis for the reasoning of the ICJ and Special Court.

Books and Articles in the Field of the Prevention and Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes (Spring 2005) Compiled by Ingrid Kost, Conservator Peace Palace Library