Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Ulfstein: Making Treaties Work

Geir Ulfstein (Univ. Oslo - Law & Norwegian Centre for Human Rights), with Thilo Marauhn (Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen - Law) & Andreas Zimmermann (Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel - Law), has published Making Treaties Work: Human Rights, Environment and Arms Control (Cambridge Univ. Press 2007). Here's the abstract:
There is an increasing focus on the need for national implementation of treaties. International law has traditionally left enforcement to the individual parties, but more and more treaties contain arrangements to induce States to comply with their commitments. Experts in this book examine three forms of such mechanisms: dispute settlement procedures in the form of international courts, non-compliance procedures of an administrative character, and enforcement of obligation by coercive means. Three fields are examined, namely human rights, international environmental law, and arms control and disarmament. These areas are in the forefront of the development of current international law and deal with multilateral, rather than purely bilateral issues. The three parts of the book on human rights, international environmental law and arms control contain a general introduction and case studies of the most relevant treaties in the field.