Law-Making Processes in the UN System — Some Impressions

This chapter reviews many of the processes of codifying and developing the rules of international law which have been used during the past 50 years. It does so primarily by making comparisons between the processes used in regard to the law of treaties and those used for the law of the sea, processes in which the author participated as a delegate. The chapter gives the writer?s personal impressions of the two Conferences, without attempting to give complete accounts of them, and offers some conclusions on the different processes of law-making under the auspices of the United Nations. The role of customary law remains important for several reasons, including the existence of non-parties and gaps in the articles. However the work of the United Nations over the past 50 years has tended to diminish the role of customary law as the law-making processes have produced conventional law.Keywords: customary law; international law; law of the sea; law of treaties; law-making processes; United Nations