Biodiversity loss raises some of the most difficult issues of equity in international environmental law. Differential obligations have been developed as a means of enabling developed and developing countries to participate in the Biodiversity Convention. This article contends that the actual practices of these obligations have been cast narrowly, reinforce the existing politics and economics of biodiversity conservation, and are difficult to see and practise. They have been predominantly understood as obliging the transfer of funds and technology between states and as implicitly encouraging technology-based development pathways. The article calls for differential obligations to be reworked in environmental justice terms to encompass plural, alternative development pathways, such as creating local economies. It proposes that emerging market-based, community initiatives and the ecological footprint concept could help to provide ways to make differential obligations more workable.

The author critically analyzes the judgement rendered by the ICJ on 14 February 2002, in the Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 case. The Court's reasoning is criticized for both its poor motivation in acknowledging the existence of a rule of customary international law, providing for absolute inviolability and immunity for incumbent ministers for foreign affairs before the national courts of other states, and for the rather theoretical manner in which the Court asserts that immunity does not amount to impunity. It is also regretted that the Court did not pronounce on the issue of universal jurisdiction, thereby missing a great opportunity to clarify a controversial but increasingly important issue of international (criminal) law.

The success of the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia in fulfilling its mandate turns on the justness of the decisions it renders. To ensure that its judgements are accepted by the international community as just decisions the Tribunal is directed by the Report of the Secretary-General to adhere fully in its criminal proceedings to internationally recognized human rights standards. This directive suggests that the Tribunal should adhere to the interpretation of human rights principles as understood by other jurisdictions. However, in some instances the Tribunal has, by virtue of its statutory requirements, been unable to follow those standards as understood by other jurisdictions and it has justifiably adopted a contextual approach to the application of certain human rights principles to its criminal proceedings. In other instances, however, the Tribunal has purported to adhere fully to certain human rights principles as adopted by other jurisdictions. This has occurred with respect to the Tribunal's adherence to the principle of equality of arms. In this instance, however, the Tribunal's purported adherence to that principle has led to a situation where that adherence has had a negative effect on the justness of the decisions it has rendered. In the following it is argued that with respect to the application of the principle of equality of arms the Tribunal should adopt a contextual approach if the decisions it renders are to be just decisions and are to have the appearance of being just decisions.

This case note focuses on two key aspects of the Vasiljević Judgement. The first one is the accused's acquittal of the charge of ‘violence to life and person’ under common Article 3 for the reason that the trial chamber was not satisfied that it constituted a crime under customary international law. The second aspect is the trial chamber's analysis of state practice to identify the definition under customary law of extermination as a crime against humanity.

The implementation of the provisions of treaties and conventions is a duty arising from conventional and customary international law. In the case of the Rome Statute this duty is implied, since only by fulfilling it will states be able properly to comply with the obligation of complementarity. Moreover, the entire Statute is based on the assumption that states parties will in most cases be able and willing to investigate and prosecute crimes. Implementing the Rome Statute in Latin America is complicated by gaps existing in domestic legislation and the special characteristics of the legislation of civil law states.

The present article identifies a tension between the two main mandates of the UN's administration of East Timor: community-building on the one hand and human rights promotion on the other. While originally planned to accompany each other, in practice the goal of human rights promotion took over, perhaps on the basis of the thought that serious community-building presupposes that a catalogue of human rights (including enforcement machinery) is in place. This thesis, however, is debatable, and it is even thinkable that an emphasis on human rights forms an obstacle to community-building.

The recognition of Baltic independence in 1991 led to a number of challenges in their relationship with Russia. The legal status of large Russian-speaking minorities in Latvia and Estonia, the unresolved border questions, and the particular situation of Kaliningrad have proved to be the most pressing of these. This article tries to link these topical political issues with international law practice on state continuity. It refers to competing visions of Baltic statehood and its political and legal consequences, particularly in the context of the forthcoming enlargement of NATO and the EU.

Books and Articles in the Field of the Prevention and Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes (Winter 2002–3)