Understanding International Institutions and the Legislative Process

In the realm of the law of international organizations and treaty law, few commentators have made a more significant contribution than Paul C. Szasz. In his years of distinguished service at the U.N., and in his subsequent career as a prominent consultant to international institutions, he has mastered a highly specialized body of knowledge that allows him to study the inner and outer workings of the international legislative, administrative, and judicial processes with unique and compelling authority. His incisive essays, always deeply informed with first-hand experience, have gone directly to the heart of the most vital international legal issues of our time. This volume gathers twenty-one essays that will be of inestimable value to the entire community of public international lawyers. With penetrating insight Szasz exposes the institutional underpinnings affecting such international law matters as: law-making in international organizations, the obligation to arbitrate, monitoring treaty compliance, UN system "complexification," sanctions, the advisory competence of the World Court, the legal liability of diplomats, peacekeeping intervention, and the role of NGOs. Specific facts and events-such as the U.S. action in the 1988 PLO mission controversy, developments in the safeguards regime of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Kosovo Conflict, the Dayton Accords, and the Namibian peace process-provide a firm topical basis for the author's analysis of policy, practice, and theory in this little-understood but crucially important area of international governance. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.