Law-Making in the International Community

As the world approaches the end of the twentieth century it becomes clear that the global legal system governing relations between the members of the international community is passing through a period of profound change. The traditional lawmaking techniques, established largely at the beginning of this century, were constituted so as to provide for only gradual reforms within a limited and homogeneous community of states. Faced with a growing number of global problems, the international community has discovered that the traditional legal system lacks effective procedures for rapid generation of new international legal norms. Law-Making in the International Community examines to what extent the transformations in the social and the legal infrastructures of the international community have affected the traditional rules, determining how international law is to be made or changed. By focusing on actual state practice, official statements of governments and the pronouncements of the World Court, this book seeks to clarify the content and significance of the existing community consensus concerning the authoritative methods of lawmaking.