CYIL Vol. 7, 2016

CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ THE INTERNATIONAL LAWCOMMISSION AT THE END OF ITS QUINQUENNIUM… of provisional application. Draft guideline 7 addresses the legal effect of provisional application. Draft guideline 8 deals with the question of breach of an obligation under a treaty being provisionally applied. Draft guideline 9 concerns the termination of the provisional application in the particular context where a notification of intention not to become a party has been communicated. In concluding remarks the Special Rapporteur indicated that the future draft guidelines should address situations in which the agreement to provisionally apply a treaty limited the provisional application of a treaty by referring to internal law. 47 3. Conclusion The session of the ILC in 2016 had again a very demanding programme, both in the number of topics discussed and in the adopted final products. The Commission addressed not less than 9 different topics, which was probably the highest number in its history. From this point of view, the decision to have a 12-week session in the final year of the quinquennium proved to be a very wise one. As had been expected, the Commission sought to finalize as many topics as possible. It includes the adoption of draft articles on Protection of persons in the event of disasters (second reading) and draft conclusions on Identification of customary international law and on Subsequent agreements and subsequent practice (first reading). However, important progress was also made in other topics, such as Crimes against humanity, Protection of the atmosphere and Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts. On balance, there is not so significant progress in some other topics, namely Provisional application of treaties and Immunity of State officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction. In the latter case, however, this was due to an exceptional and unfortunate situation when the report was not translated in time in all the official languages. This led to the situation that the debate on the very important issue of exceptions and limitations to the immunities only commenced, but was not concluded, and would continue in 2017. Concerning the first report on Jus cogens , the report, debate and results reflect the early stage of consideration of the new and extremely interesting topic. Sufficient time was also reserved for meetings of theWorking Group on the Long- term programme of work. It allowed the Commission to revise and complete the list of possible new topics. In addition to two new topics, Crimes against humanity and Jus cogens , which were put on the programme of work of the ILC respectively in 2014 and 2015, at the present session the Commission decided to recommend the following topics in the long-term programme of work: (a) Settlement of international disputes to which international organizations are parties; and (b) Succession of States

in respect of State responsibility. 47 See doc. CN.4/L.890, p. 12, § 49.

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