CYIL 2014

THE INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMISSION AT THE MIDǧPOINT OF ITS QUINQUENNIUM THE INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMISSION AT THE MID-POINT OF ITS QUINQUENNIUM (SURVEY OF ITS WORK IN 2014)

Pavel Šturma *

1. Introduction and the organization of the sixty-sixth session of the ILC The International Law Commission is the United Nations body which has for its object the promotion of the progressive development of international law and its codification. The ILC consists of 34 members who shall be persons of recognized competence in international law, elected by the General Assembly for a term of five years. Therefore it is possible to say that the present Commission has been at mid point of its current term in 2014. This contribution aims at presenting the results of its work completed this year, as well as its on-going work and some new topics. Unlike the two previous years, the present year brought the completion of several topics that have been on the programme of the ILC for a long time. This is why the general presentation of the session is shorter and the substantive analysis of the adopted report will be more extensive. As usual, the session of the Commission took part in Geneva and was split into two parts. The first part of the session (from 5 May till 6 June) was followed by a month long break. Then the Commission resumed its session on 7 July; the second part lasted until 8 August 2014. At its first meeting on 5 May 2014 the Commission elected the Chairman of the ILC and other officers of the Bureau of the sixty-sixth session. 1 On some occasions they also met in the Enlarged Bureau, including in particular the Special Rapporteurs and chairmen of Study Groups. The Commission set up a Planning Group under the chairmanship of Mr. Murase. The ILC also established a Drafting Committee, which met this year only for five topics where some draft articles were sent to it: (a) Protection of persons in the event of disasters; (b) Expulsion of aliens; (c) Subsequent agreements and subsequent practice in relation to the interpretation of treaties; (d) Immunity of State officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction; and (e) Identification of customary international law. * Prof. JUDr. Pavel Šturma, DrSc. , is Head of the Department of International Law, Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague, senior research fellow at the Institute of Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences, President of the Czech Society of International Law and member of the UN International Law Commission. He is a co-author of the textbook Public International Law and author of many publications on codification of international law, international criminal law, human rights and international investment law. 1 Chairman: Mr. Kirill Gevorgian (Russian Federation), First Vice-Chairman: Mr. Shinya Murase (Japan), Second Vice-Chairman: Ms. Concepción Escobar Hernández (Spain), Chairman of the Drafting Committee: Mr. Gilberto Vergne Saboia (Brazil), Rapporteur: Mr. Dire D. Tladi (South Africa).

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