CYIL 2012

PAVEL ŠTURMA CYIL 3 ȍ2012Ȏ total 12 weeks) in order to complete three important topics, namely the guidelines on Reservations to treaties, draft articles on the Responsibility of international organizations and draft articles on Effects of armed conflicts on treaties. 4 On balance, this year the session of the ILC was shorter, lasting only 9 weeks, because this was the first year of the new quinquennium (2012 – 2016). The reason lies not only in the fact that the ILC had completed a good part of its topics in 2011 but also in a renewed membership. The elections, which took place on 17 November 2011 at the General Assembly in New York, created a new Commission where approximately one third of the members are newly elected. In fact, 11 out of 34 members are new, 5 and two other members (re-elected) served before only in 2011 when the Commission elected them in order to fill the casual vacancies. 6 In addition, one of the reelected members did not attend the session and sent his letter of resignation. 7 Therefore, the ILC will have to elect another member from candidates nominated by the States of GRULAC. The combined effect of the 2011 elections and filling the casual vacancies may lead to a situation where up to 14 members of the Commission will be new or recently arriving. As a result, the ILC seems to be becoming younger and probably more active, which does not mean, however, that it is more progressive. Such a renewal is a logical and generally positive development. It has also certain negative effects as the new members were not familiar with the methods of work of the ILC. Some of them had, at least occasionally, a tendency to re-open issues that had been already discussed and decided by the ILC in the past. It may be one of the reasons for the rather slower start to the work at the 2012 session. Moreover, two of the former Special Rapporteurs are no longer members of the Commission, which needed a discussion about the future of those topics. At the same time, some of the reelected members wanted to forward the topics included by the Commission, on the proposal of the Working Group on the Long-Term Programme of Work, in its long-term programme in 2011. 3. The organization of the sixty-fourth session of the ILC (2012) As usual, the session of the Commission took part in Geneva and was split in two parts. The first part of the session (from 7 May till 1 June) was followed by a one month break. Then the Commission resumed its session on 2 July, the second part lasted until 3 August 2012. At its first meeting on 7 May 2012, the Commission elected Mr. Lucius Caflisch (of Switzerland) as Chairman of the ILC and other officers of the Bureau of the 4 Cf. Report of the International Law Commission. Sixty-third session, GAOR Sixty-sixth session, Supplement No. 10 (A/66/10). 5 In alphabetic order: Mr. Abdelrazag El-Murtadi Suleiman Gouider (Libya), Mathias Forteau (France), Kirill Gevorgian (Russian Federation), Juan Manuel Gómez-Robledo (Mexico), Kriangsak Kittichaisaree (Thailand), Ahmed Laraba (Algeria), Sean Murphy (USA), Ki Gab Park (Republic of Korea), Chris Maina Peter (Tanzania), Pavel Šturma (Czech Republic) and Dire Tladi (South Africa). 6 Ms. Conceptión Escobar Hernández (Spain) and Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoko (Nigeria). 7 Mr. Stephen C. Vasciannie (Jamaica).

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