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Mr Chairman
Last year we recorded our view as to the importance of this topic and expressed our support for the Commission’s approach to it. We continue to believe that a full exploration of this subject will contribute in a timely way to a better understanding of the functioning of the international legal system and its component parts. We also consider that the Commission’s responsibilities in respect of general international law make it the logical and indeed ideal body to undertake this examination.
The Commission’s work on the topic recorded in this year’s report confirms our view on both counts.
In the first place we are pleased to note that the Commission has sought to continue its study without becoming consumed with the question of the final form of its work. We agree that the analytical exercise involved in the study will in itself be thoroughly useful irrespective of whether or not it gives rise to normative results as such. Indeed we think this has already been clearly demonstrated by the Chairman’s study on the function and scope of the lex specialis rule and the question of self-contained regimes and by the outlines prepared by other members of the Commission on the additional subjects.
Some important points have already emerged as recorded in the Report of the Study Group. In particular we are impressed by the analysis that supports the conclusion that general international law functions in an omnipresent manner behind special rules and regimes, that no special rules can be isolated from general international law and that therefore the term “self-contained regime” is in fact a misnomer.
Mr Chairman this seems to us significant. First, because it establishes that the emergence of special treaty regimes in different areas such as trade, human rights and the environment does not mean that the international legal system is losing coherence and is in some kind of crisis. Second, because it points the way towards the techniques for dealing with the existence of differing and apparently conflicting rules in a given situation. In particular it emphasises the importance of the Vienna Convention on Treaties and the rules it contains that are relevant for interpreting and reconciling conflicting norms.
But this in turn takes us back to the fundamental point that treaties are themselves a product of international law, derive their legitimacy from an international legal system and require to be interpreted against the background of general international law.
Mr Chairman
It is our hope and indeed our expectation that the Commission’s work will provide valuable illumination on this important and topical issue of the harmonisation of international legal rules and the avoidance of apparent conflicts between different legal norms. We are comfortable with the fact that the form of the result of the Commission’s work is not finally settled. We are pleased to see, however, that the Commission’s Study Group has taken note of the Sixth Committee’s interest in a result that will have practical value and is planning to produce a concise summary of its larger substantive work. Such a summary is likely to be a valuable day to day resource document for legal officers dealing with international legal issues.
I would like to conclude by expressing our thanks to the Chairman of the Study Group for his intellectual leadership on this complex subject and our support for the Commission’s ongoing work on it.
Thank you Mr Chairman.
