Abstract
Both The United Nations and its predecessor The League of Nations came into being as responses by the international community of States
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
A State is identified by four different characteristics in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States of 1933, Article 1 of which states: The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.
- 2.
A nation represents the people of a State. The United Nations Charter refers to nations, or people of the world and therefore implicitly charging the United Nations to unite the entire world.
- 3.
For the United Nations, the rule of law refers to a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency. S/2004/616, Report of the Secretary-General on the Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies.
- 4.
Per Justice Huber in The Island of Palmas Case. See 2RIAA, at pp. 829, at 838 (1928).
- 5.
The Economist, September 16, 1999 at 21.
- 6.
PCIJ (1927) Ser. A, No 9 at 18.
- 7.
Article 24 of the United Nations Charter provides that In order to ensure prompt and effective action by the United Nations, its Members confer on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and agree that in carrying out its duties under this responsibility the Security Council acts on their behalf. In discharging these duties the Security Council shall act in accordance with the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations. The specific powers granted to the Security Council for the discharge of these duties are laid down in Chaps. 6, 7, 8, and 12. Article 24 also states that the Security Council shall submit annual and, when necessary, special reports to the General Assembly for its consideration Article 23 of the Charter provides that the Security Council shall consist of 15 Members of the United Nations. The Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the Security Council. The General Assembly shall elect ten other Members of the United Nations to be non-permanent members of the Security Council, due regard being specially paid, in the first instance to the contribution of Members of the United Nations to the maintenance of international peace and security and to the other purposes of the Organization, and also to equitable geographical distribution. Article 23 goes on to say that the non-permanent members of the Security Council shall be elected for a term of 2 years. In the first election of the non-permanent members after the increase of the membership of the Security Council from 11 to 15, two of the four additional members shall be chosen for a term of 1 year. A retiring member shall not be eligible for immediate re-election. Each member of the Security Council shall have one representative.
- 8.
ICJ Report (1949) 174.
- 9.
See Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice, United Nations: New York, Article 13.1.a.
- 10.
Article 2 of the Draft Code at 64–65.
- 11.
Report of the International Law Commission to the General Assembly on the work of the First Session, (1949) A/CN.4/13. June 9 at 21.
- 12.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969, Done at Vienna on 23c May 1969, United Nations General Assembly Document A/CONF.39/27, 23 May 1969, Article 2(a). The Convention entered into force on 27 January 1980. UNTS Vol. 1155, p. 331.
- 13.
There are instances where States may record their reservation on particular provisions of a convention while signing the document as a whole. The International Court of Justice in its examination of the Genocide Convention has ruled:
The object and purpose of the Convention…limit both the freedom of making reservations and that of objecting to them. It follows that it is the compatibility of a reservation with the object and purpose of the Convention that must furnish the criterion for the attitude of a State in objecting to the reservation. 1 I.C.J. Rep. (1951) at 15.
- 14.
The Preamble to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, signed at Chicago on 7 December 1944 ( ICAO Doc 7300/8: 2006) states:
the undersigned governments having agreed on certain principles and arrangements in order that international civil aviation may be developed in a safe and orderly manner and that international air transport services may be established on the basis of equality of opportunity and operated soundly and economically; have accordingly concluded this Convention to that end.
- 15.
Statute of the International Court of Justice, Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice, United Nations: New Y, Article 38.1 (a). See the discussion on the International Court of Justice that follows in the text related to note 42 infra.
- 16.
Id., Article 36.2 (a).
- 17.
Vienna Convention, supra, note 12 at Preamble.
- 18.
Id., Article 42.1.
- 19.
Id., Article 57.
- 20.
Id., Article 59.
- 21.
Id., Article 60.
- 22.
Id., Article 61.
- 23.
Id., Article 62.
- 24.
Id., Article 46.
- 25.
A State has been defined in this Chapter. See supra, note 2.
- 26.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Supra note 12, Article 2(a).
- 27.
Headquarters Agreement between Canada and ICAO of 14 April 1951, which paraphrased the 1947 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies. On 20 February 1992, the 1951 Agreement was terminated and superseded by a new Agreement that entered into force the same day. A new Supplementary Agreement was signed on 28 May 1999 superseding the Supplementary Agreement signed in 1980 in order to reflect the relocation of the Organization’s Headquarters to a new location on 999 University Street on November 1, 1996. See Supplementary Agreement Between the International Civil Aviation Organization and the Government of Canada Regarding the Headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization, Doc 9591.
- 28.
“Ratification”, “acceptance”, “approval” and “accession” mean in each case the international act so named whereby a State establishes on the international plane its consent to be bound by a treaty. See Vienna Convention , supra, note 6 at Article 2(b).
- 29.
“Reservation” means a unilateral statement, however phrased or named, made by a State, when signing, ratifying, accepting, approving or acceding to a treaty, whereby it purports to exclude or to modify the legal effect of certain provisions of the treaty in their application to that State. Id. 2(d).
- 30.
See West Rand Central Gold Mining Company v. R. [1905] 2. K.B. 391 per Lord Alverstone who stated in his judgment: “whatever has received the common consent of civilized nations must have received the assent of our country, and that to which we assented along with other nations in general may properly be called international law: and as such will be acknowledged and applied by our municipal tribunals to decide questions to which doctrines of international law may be relevant”. Id. 397.
- 31.
Supra, note 12.
- 32.
Article 12 (1) states that the consent of a State to be bound by a treaty is expressed by the signature of its representative when: (a) the treaty provides that signature shall have that effect; (b) it is otherwise established that the negotiating States were agreed that signature should have that effect; or (c) the intention of the State to give that effect to the signature appears from the full powers of its representative or was expressed during the negotiation. Article 12.2 provides that for the purposes of paragraph 1: (a) the initialling of a text constitutes a signature of the treaty when it is established that the negotiating States so agreed; (b) the signature ad referendum of a treaty by a representative, if confirmed by his State, constitutes a full signature of the treaty.
- 33.
Vienna Convention, supra note 12 at Article 2 (1) (g). It should be noted that such States should not be called “signatories” as some refer to them erroneously.
- 34.
Id. Article 24 (1).
- 35.
Id. Article 25.
- 36.
Article 57 of the United Nations Charter provides that the various specialized agencies, established by intergovernmental agreement and having wide international responsibilities, as defined in their basic instruments, in economic, social, cultural, educational, health, and related fields, shall be brought into relationship with the United Nations in accordance with the provisions of Article 63. Article 57 goes on to say that such agencies thus brought into relationship with the United Nations are referred to as specialized agencies.
- 37.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). Of the six principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one not located in New York (United States of America). The Court is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of office of 9 years by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council. It is assisted by a Registry, its administrative organ. Its official languages are English and French.
- 38.
The genesis of the ICJ lay in Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations which gave the Council of the League responsibility for formulating plans for the establishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), such a court to be competent not only to hear and determine any dispute of an international character submitted to it by the parties to the dispute, but also to give an advisory opinion upon any dispute or question referred to it by the Council or by the Assembly. It remained for the League Council to take the necessary action to give effect to Article 14.
- 39.
Id. 111. See also A.J.P Tammes, Decisions of International Organs as a Source of international Law, 94 HR 1958 at 265.
References
Brownlie I (1990) Principles of public international law, 4th edn. Clarendon Pres, Oxford, p 691
Greig DW (1976) International law, 2nd edn. Butterworths, London, p 8
Monbiot G (2007) The best way to give the poor a real voice is through a world parliament. The Guardian, London, p 31 (24 April 2007)
Reuter (1989) Introduction to the law of treaties. Pinter Publishers, London, New York, p 16
Sachs J (2005) The end of poverty—economic possibilities of our time. Penguin, New York, p 3
Schwarzenberger G, Brown ED (1976) A manual of international law, 6th edn. Professional Books Limited, Oxon, p 118
Shaw MN (2003) International law, 5th edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p 110
Thakur R (2010) Law, legitimacy and the United Nations. Melbourne J Int Law 11:1
von der Dunk FG (2014) Jus Cogens Sive Lex Ferenda: Jus Cogentium. In: Masson-Zwaan TL, Mendes De Leon PMJ (eds) Air and space law: De Lege Ferenda, essays in honour of Henri A. Wassenbergh vol 219. Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, pp 223–224
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Abeyratne, R. (2014). Introduction. In: Aviation and Climate Change. SpringerBriefs in Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08443-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08443-5_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08442-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08443-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawLaw and Criminology (R0)