The 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations has for over 50 years been central to diplomacy and applied to all forms of relations among sovereign States. Participation is almost universal. The rules giving special protection to ambassadors are the oldest established in international law and the Convention is respected almost everywhere. But understanding it as a living instrument requires knowledge of its background in customary international law, of the negotiating history which clarifies many of its terms and the subsequent practice of states and decisions of national courts which have resolved other ambiguities. Diplomatic Law provides this in-depth Commentary. The book is an essential guide to changing methods of modern diplomacy and shows how challenges to its regime of special protection for embassies and diplomats have been met and resolved. It is used by ministries of foreign affairs and cited by domestic courts world-wide. The book analyzes the reasons for the widespread observance of the Convention rules and why in the special case of communications - where there is flagrant violation of their special status - these reasons do not apply. It describes how abuse has been controlled and how the immunities in the Convention have survived onslaught by those claiming that they should give way to conflicting entitlements to access to justice and the desire to punish violators of human rights. It describes how the duty of diplomats not to interfere in the internal affairs of the host State is being narrowed in the face of the communal international responsibility to monitor and uphold human rights.

It gives me great pleasure to write a foreword to :\1r. Sen's excellent book, and for two reasons in particular. In the first place, in producing it, Mr. Sen has done something vvhich I have long felt needed to be done, and which I at one time had am bitions to do myself. \Vhen, over thirty years ago, and after some years of practice at the Bar, I first entered the legal side of the British Foreign Service, I had not been working for long in the Foreign Office before I conceived the idea of writing - or at any rate compiling - a book to which (in my own mind) I gave the title of "A ~fanual of Foreign Office Law. " This work, had I ever produced it in the form in which I visualised it, could probably not have been published con sistently with the requirements of official discretion. But this did not worry me as I was only contemplating something for private circulation within the Service and in Government circles. :Mr. Sen's aim has been broader and more public-spirited than mine was; but its basis is essentially the same.

The granting of diplomatic asylum to Julian Assange, the dangers faced by diplomats in troublespots around the world, WikiLeaks and the publication of thousands of embassy cable - situations like these place diplomatic agents and diplomatic law at the very centre of contemporary debate on current affairs. Diplomatic Law in a New Millennium brings together 20 experts to provide insight into some of the most controversial and important matters which characterise modern diplomatic law. They include diplomatic asylum, the treatment (and rights) of domestic staff of diplomatic agents, the inviolability of correspondence, of the diplomatic bag and of the diplomatic mission, the immunity to be given to members of the diplomatic family, diplomatic duties (including the duty of non-interference), but also the rise of diplomatic actors which are not sent by States (including members of the EU diplomatic service). This book explores these matters in a critical, yet accessible manner, and is therefore an invaluable resource for practitioners, scholars and students with an interest in diplomatic relations. The authors of the book include some of the leading authorities on diplomatic law (including a delegate to the 1961 conference which codified modern diplomatic law) as well as serving and former members of the diplomatic corps.

Few topics of international law speak to the imagination as much as international immunities. Questions pertaining to immunity from jurisdiction or execution under international law surface on a frequent basis before national courts, including at the highest levels of the judicial branch and before international courts or tribunals. Nevertheless, international immunity law is and remains a challenging field for practitioners and scholars alike. Challenges stem in part from the uncertainty pertaining to the customary content of some immunity regimes said to be in a 'state of flux', the divergent – and at times directly conflicting - approaches to immunity in different national and international jurisdictions, or the increasing intolerance towards impunity that has accompanied the advance of international criminal law and human rights law. Composed of thirty-four expertly written contributions, the present volume uniquely provides a comprehensive tour d'horizon of international immunity law, traversing a wealth of national and international practice.

This book, in its effort to formulate compatibility between Islamic law and the principles of international diplomatic law, argues that the need to harmonize the two legal systems and have a thorough cross-cultural understanding amongst nations generally with a view to enhancing unfettered diplomatic cooperation should be of paramount priority.

The past century has been a period of revolutionary change in many fields of human activity, in institutions and in thought. This period has seen the need of adjustment of state institutions and legal concepts to the needs of greater international cooperation. During the half century preceding the First World War, cooperation by governments outside the traditional diplomatic channels and procedures was largely limited to highly technical organizations, commonly referred to as public international unions, dealing with such matters as the im provement of postal communications and the control of contagious diseases. With the establishment of the League of Nations and the International Labor Organization at the end of the First World War, organized international cooperation assumed greater importance and the need was recognized of giving to the instruments of such cooper ation legal status and rights which would facilitate the effective performance of their functions. This proved to be a difficult adjustment for legal theory to make since the enjoyment of special privileges and immunities had been based in traditional international law on the fiction of state sovereignty. The new international organizations, while performing functions of the kind performed by national govern ments, were far from possessing the powers of such governments. The failure of the League of Nations to achieve its major purpose did not signify any permanent decline in the role of organized inter national cooperation.

This book offers a unique critical analysis of the legal nature, effects and limits of UN Security Council referrals to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Alexandre Skander Galand provides, for the first time, a full picture of two competing understandings of the nature of the Security Council referrals to the ICC, and their respective normative interplay with legal barriers to the exercise of universal prescriptive and adjudicative jurisdiction. The book shows that the application of the Rome Statute through a Security Council referral is inherently limited by the UN Charter as well as the Rome Statute, and can conflict with other branches of international law, including international human rights law, the law on immunities and the law of treaties. Hence, it spells out a conception of the nature and effects of Security Council referrals that responds to these limits and, in turn, informs the reader on the nature of the ICC itself.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.