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ŠTEFAN VIEDENSKÝ
CYIL 5 ȍ2014Ȏ
theoretical analysis of international law based on the “Anglo-Saxon” system of law
(“common law”). And this is not common in Czech and Slovak publishing practice;
and thus it is for us even more attractive and enlightening.
Also, if you take into consideration the above mentioned typical “Table of
Contents” of “Continental textbooks” in comparison with that of Professor Brownlie’s,
you will find subjects of interest, the scheme and chapter and order of the parts of
his book are quite different: 1) Sources of the Law, 2) The Relation of Municipal
and International Law, 3) Subjects of the Law, 4) Incidence and Continuity of
Statehood, 5) Recognition of States and Governments, 6) Territorial Sovereignty, 7)
The Creation and Transfer of Territorial Sovereignty, 8) Status of Territory: Further
Problems, 9) Territorial Sea, Contiguous Zones, and Exclusive Economic Zones, 10)
The Continental Shelf: Delimitation of Shelf Areas and Exclusive Economic Zones,
11) The Regime of the High Seas, 12) Common Amenities and Co-operation in
the Use of Resources, 13) Legal Aspects of the Protection of the Environment, 14)
Sovereignty and Equality of States, 15) Jurisdictional Competence, 16) Privileges
and Immunities of Foreign States, 17) Diplomatic and Consular Relations, 18)
Reservations from Territorial Sovereignty, 19) The Relations of Nationality, 20)
Some Rules of Attribution: Corporations and Specific Assets, 21) The Responsibility
of States, 22) The Admissibility of State Claims, 23) A System of Multilateral Public
Order: Some Incidents of Illegality and the Concept of Jus Cogens, 24) Injury to the
Persons and Property of Aliens on State Territory, 25) The Protection of Individuals
and Groups: Human Rights and Self-Determination, 26) International Criminal
Justice, 27) The Law of Treaties, 28) Other Transactions Including Agency and
Representation, 29) State Succession, 30) Other Cases of Transmission of Rights and
Duties, 31) International Organizations, 32) The Judicial Settlement of International
Disputes, 33) The Use or Threat of Force by States. And more than this − the book
is written in a very precise manner and proceeds to explain problems step by step,
using many explicit examples.
The book is also very credible because the author presents many arguments by
indicating a number of international law cases settled by the international courts and
arbitrations (as the most advanced means of the peaceful resolution of international
disputes by institutions for this purpose created by the international community).
Brownlie’s manner of interpretation and argumentation give the reader no room
for doubt about the meaning, purpose or use of appropriate legislation and the
interdependence of each chapter or part of the book.
Among the many superlatives and evaluations already written on this publication,
I would like to be free to restate as my opinion the very concise words written by
Miroslav Slašťan
,
from the Pan European University in Bratislava, in his foreword:
“The presented monograph represents without doubt the long-awaited revival of
legal literature in the field of international law, which has perhaps for several decades
been malnourished for lack of variety of upgraded educational and professional texts,
their scientific understanding, where individual institutions of public international