CYIL 2012

THE LAW OF TREATIES

Šturma, P., Čepelka, Č., Balaš, V. The Law of Treaties [Právo mezinárodních smluv] Vydavatelství a nakladatelství Aleš Čeněk s.r.o., Pilsen 2011, 404 p. Vydavatelství a nakladavatelství Aleš Čeněk s.r.o. published in 2011 a book called “The Law of Treaties” by a team of highly renowned authors: Pavel Šturma, Čestmír Čepelka and Vladimír Balaš. As the name of the book suggests, this work deals with one of the most important areas of international law, namely the law of international treaties. It should be noted that the publication has a unique focus and scope, and superbly addresses relevant issues. Therefore, it should certainly not escape the attention of practitioners who deal with various aspects of negotiation, interpretation and application of international treaties. The book takes the form of a commentary on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969) and very successfully builds on two previously published editions that dealt with treaty law (both were by Čestmír Čepelka, and were published in 1986 and 1999). The work is divided, apart from a preface, into 4 main chapters and it is supplemented with 6 annexes containing selected national and international legal documents which directly relate to the theme of the publication. In the first chapter the authors provide a brief history of codification of international law of treaties and deal with the Vienna codification of treaty law and newly with the Vienna Convention on the Law of international organizations. The second chapter takes the form of a commentary on the provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969) and is based on the comments of the Commission for International Law which accompanied the draft text of the Convention. The authors were not content with merely re-issuing this commentary, but carefully revised and supplemented it with regard to recent developments in treaty law and subjected the original text of the Convention, including the original commentary of the International Law Commission, to criticism (e.g. see p. 164). Unlike previous releases, the area of reservations to international treaties especially enjoyed greater attention due to the recent evolvement in this area thanks to the Guide to Practice on Reservations to Treaties (2011) issued by the International Law Commission. The authors also added comments on a provisional application of treaties and their interpretation. The conclusion of the chapter is devoted to the effect of armed conflicts on treaties, which is a completely new contribution compared to the previous releases, mainly due to the draft articles on the effects of armed conflicts on treaties (2011) adopted by the Commission for International Law. The third chapter focuses on law-making of international organizations in contemporary international law. The first part of this chapter deals with the specifics of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International

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