Book Review: International Law and Organization: Law, Politics, and the Security Council
| Published date | 01 September 1966 |
| Date | 01 September 1966 |
| Author | R. J. St. Macdonald |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206602100315 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
RE•rEWS
377
For
governments
and
the
legitimacy
without
which
they
cannot
do
their
work,
the interplay
of
general norms
embedded
in
tradition
with
those
contrived norms
contained
in
ideologies comes
to
be
the
pivot
of
the
modernizing
situation.
Among
ideologies
that
of
science
takes
a
predominant
place,
not
because
it
is
satisfying,
but
because
its
rivals
are
discredited.
Science,
like
its
predecessors,
has
a
unifying
effect.
"The
ideology
of
science,
and
the
professional
roles
and
norms
asso-
ciated
with
it,
is
an
important
bridge
between
the
modernizing
and
the
industrial
nations"
(p.
317)
It is
not
necessary
that
a
high
per
centage
of
the
community
have
careers
in
science,
but
at
least
some
of
the
outlook
of
science
must
have
broad
acceptance
in
any
community
called
modern.
A
review
cannot summarize
the
theory
expounded
in
this
brilliant
book,
nor
even
give
a
glossary
of
its
strange
vocabulary-
still
less
can
a
review
report
the
wide
range
of
empirical
observation
of contem-
porary
African
societies
on
which
it is
based. The
book
itself,
and
not
any
review
of
it,
is
indispensable to
the
student
of
developing
societies.
UntiveSity
of
Ch5cago
NATHAN
KEYFTrz
International
Law
and
Organization
LAW, POLITICS,
AND
THE
SECURITY
COUNCIL.
An
Inquiry
into
the
Handling
of
Legal
Questions
Involved
in
International
Disputes
and Situations.
By
Tae
Jin
Kahng.
1965.
(The
Hague:
Martinus
Nijhoff.
xiv
252pp.
27.95
guilders)
Dr.
Kahng
has
had
a
good
idea,
and
he
has carried
it
through
with
all the
thoroughness
which
we
have
come
to
expect
from
those
who
have
done
the
doctor's
degree
in
political
science
at
Columbia
University
His
idea
was to
see
how
the
Security
Council
has
"handled
various
legal
questions
involved
in
international
disputes and
situations,
and he
has
pursued
his
objective by
"induction based
on
numerous
case
studies.
The legal
questions
which
he
has
chosen
for
examination
are
grouped
within
the
triangle
of
the
Council's competence
and
procedure,
and
the
substantive
rights
and
duties
of
the
parties
in
question;
and
the
disputes
and situations
which
are
passed
in
review,
in
addition
to
those
on
domestic
jurisdiction,
the
Berlin
question
and
the
double
veto,
range
over
the
Guatemalan,
Dominican
and
Cuban cases;
the
Iranian,
Trieste
and
Palestinian
cases,
and
(among
others)
the
Corfu
Channel
case,
the
Suez
nationalization,
the
Suez
crisis of
1956,
and
the
Cuban
crisis
of
1962.
These
in
their
totality
represent
a
majority
of
all
important
dis-
putes
which
have
exhibited
significant
legal
issues
in
the
United
Nations,
at
least
down
to
1964,
which
was
the
date
of
Kahng's
publication. What
the
author
is
really
asking about
these
problems
is
this:
how
did
the
Council
handled
them
What
did
it
do
with
the
legal
side
of
things
How
did
it
walk the
tight-rope
between
law
and
policy How
did
it
respond
to
the
fact
that
international
life has
reduced
court
processes
to
very
minor
roles
in
the
total
context
of
dispute-settlement techniques
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