Book Review: International Law
| DOI | 10.1177/0067205X7700800407 |
| Published date | 01 December 1977 |
| Date | 01 December 1977 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
1977] Book Revie}vs 507
may appear inadequate
or
less than satisfactory.
In
truth it
is
the
academic writers who are
or
should
be
the pathfinders of the law; for
the most part it
is
for the judges to consolidate ground which has been
explored and cultivated in advance by the cut and thrust of academic
commentary and controversy.
We
have become absorbed with the constitutional issues that arose
between 1972 and 1976 and with the cases that decided some of those
issues.
We
cannot allow our absorption to become too introspective.
Now that the hurricane has passed over,
we
should bend our minds in
the direction of new problems that are likely to arise.
If
we
are to be
preoccupied with the Constitution,
we
should concentrate on the
future rather than on the past.
ANTHONY
MASON*
International
Law
by D.
W.
GREIG,
M.A.,
LL.B.,
of the Middle Temple,
Barrister; Professor of Law of the Australian National University.
(Butterworths, London, 1976, 2nd Edition), pp. i-xxi, 1-944. Cloth,
recommended retail price $40.50 (ISBN: 406 59182
2);
Paperback,
recommended retail price $27.50 (ISBN: 406 59183
0).
The second edition of this book, which
is
some 200 pages larger
than its predecessor, could be more appropriately described
as
ageneral
textbook rather than
as
an introduction. The aims of its author remain
unchanged. They are to provide
"a
survey of both the general law of
peace and the law of international institutions within the same frame-
work [and]
...
to' provide afar more detailed overall treatment of the
subject matter than
[is]
given in most one-volume texts" (page
v).
The book contains four chapters on international organizations and
one on the use of force by states,
as
well
as
anumber of chapters on
the usual topics
of
general international law.
Professor Greig's work
is
well written, scholarly in approach and
contains much original thought. The book has relatively few footnotes
and
is
thus of less use to the academic and the government practitioner
than to the student, for whom it
is
written.
The production, after six years, of asecond edition of abook
covering such awide subject matter must have been adaunting task.
As
the author comments, this
is
inevitably
so
given "[t]he increasing
complexity of state practice and the rapidity with which the relations
of states are being affected by new developments within the inter-
national community
...
"(page
v).
Yet there are only few gaps in
updating, perhaps the most serious one being the lack of reference on
page 200 to the adoption by the UN General Assembly in 1973, fol-
lowing the work of the Sixth Committee, of the Convention on the
Pr~vention
and Punishment of Crimes' against Internationally Protected
*The Honourable Sir Anthony Mason, K.B.B.
is
ajustice of the High Court of
Australia.
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