CYIL vol. 7 (2016)

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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.

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.

See doc. CN.4/L.890, p. 12, § 49.