Book Reviews : International Law in Historical Perspective by J. A. W. Verzijl. Part VI: Juridical Facts as Sources of International Rights and Obligations. pp. X and 861 and Part VI: State Succession. pp. VI and 378, A. W. Sijthoff —Leiden 1973 (Part VI) and 1974 (Part VII)

Date01 April 1976
Published date01 April 1976
DOI10.1177/004711787600500316
Subject MatterArticles
1056
The
principal
special
features
in
this
edition
are
a
map
on
World
Population
Trends
with
percentage
increase
and
comparative
ten-year
growth
by
major
regions,
and
a
thoroughly
revised
section
on
the
West
Indies
and
the
Caribbean.
It
also
has
further
details
of
the
broadcasting
systems
of
the
world
and
descriptions
of
countries’
flags.
International
Law
in
Historical
Perspective
by
J.
A.
W.
Verzijl.
Part
VI:
Juridical
Facts
as
Sources
of
International
Rights
and
Obligations.
pp.
X
and
861
and
Part
VI:
State
Succession.
pp.
VI
and
378,
A.
W.
Sijthoff
—Leiden
1973
(Part
VI)
and
1974
(Part
VII).
These
two
volumes
continue
the
masterly
ontribution
by
Professor
Verzijl
to
the
source
material of
international
law.
The
further
these
volumes
proceed
the
more
one
realises
that
no
international
lawyer,
whether
practitioner,
teacher
or
student,
can
afford
to
ignore
them.
They
will
have
to
form
part
of
any
international
law
library
with
a
claim
to
merit
of
any
kind.
But
the
quality
and
style
of
the
content
continue
as
in previous
volumes
to
be
uneven,
due
to
the
origin
of
the
text
in
the
combination
of
previous
publications
by
the
author
and
new
contri-
butions.
It
has
already
been
suggested
that
at
the
end
of
the
series
it
would
be
of
inestimable
value
to
have
a
single
volume
by
the
author
based
on
the
entire
series
which
might
be
at
once
a
key
to
the
whole
work
and
a
text-
book
of
public
international
law.
(It
is
recognised,
however,
that
this
may
be
too
much
for
a
scholar
who
has
given
so
much
and
so
many
years
of
his
life
to
the
study
of
international
law.)
On
the
other
hand,
the
utility
of
&dquo;International
Law
in
Historical
Perspective&dquo;
will
depend
in
large
measure
on
the
quality
and
extent
of
the
overall
index
of
subjects.
This
ought
to
be
carefully
prepared
on
the
basis
of
all
the
volumes
and
not
be
merely
a
consolidation
of
the
indices
to
the
individual
volumes.
It
will
be
noticed
that
Part
VI
is
twice
as
long
as
Part
VII
and
the
author
recognises
that
it
is
probably
overloaded.
It
is
concerned
with
various
aspects
of
&dquo;juridical
facts
as
sources
of
international
rights
and
obligations&dquo;
which
might
well
have
been
organised,
broadly
speaking,
under
the
heading
of
&dquo;Treaties&dquo;
and
&dquo;Juridical
Facts
other
than
Treaties&dquo;
(or
some
more
elegant
title).
This
would
have
resulted
in
two
much
more
manageable
volumes,
about
two-thirds
of
the
material
going
into
the
volume
on
Treaties
and
about
one-third
into
the
other
volume.
As
it is
Part
VI
is
concerned
with
matters
as
diverse
as
&dquo;the
simple
fact
of
co-existence&dquo;,
&dquo;international
juridical
acts&dquo;,
&dquo;treaties&dquo;,
&dquo;collective
decisions
and
international
awards&dquo;,
and
&dquo;international
delinquencies&dquo;.
It
would
be
out
of
proportion
to
try
to
indicate
those
matters
in
greater
detail
here,
but
it
is
worth
stressing
tha~t
the
pages
devoted
to
&dquo;Treaties&dquo;
are
of
great
value.
They
provide
an
examination
of
the
provisions
of
the
Vienna
Convention
on
the
Law
of
Treaties
1969
against
the
historical
and
legal
background
which
is
probably
unique
both
in
its
content
and
in
its
penetrating
critique.
Part
VII
(which,
according
to
the
author,
was
prepared
before
most
of
the
rest
of
the
work)
is
by
contrast
with
Part
VI
a
unified
pro-
duction.
It is
concerned
with
State
Succession
and
touches
on
a
wide
variety
of
problems
which
inevitably
have
to
be
solved
when
there
is
a
&dquo;succession
of
states&dquo;.
The
approach
is
two-fold,
partly
under
the
headings
of
the
various
types
of
&dquo;succession&dquo;
identified
by
the
author
and
partly
under
the
heading
of
&dquo;particular
cases
and
types
of
cases&dquo;.
The
types
of
&dquo;succession&dquo;
adopted
by
him
are
&dquo;territorial
shifts&dquo;,
&dquo;the
extinction
of
old
States&dquo;
and
&dquo;the
emergence
of
new
States
This
is
a
tidy
arrangement,
but
somewhat
out
of
line
with
developments
which
have
more
recently
been
emerging
through
the
International
Law
Com-
mission
where
special
attention
has
been
given
to
&dquo;newly
independent
States&dquo;
(with
the
implication
of
former
dependency)
as
distinct
from
other
cases
such
as
the
uniting
or
separation
of
States.
These
three
types
of
&dquo;succession&dquo;
provide
the
titles
for
Chapters
I,
II
and
III
each
of
which
is
divided
into
13
sections
under
identical
headings
in
each
Chapter.
This
provides
a
sumptuous
menu
from
&dquo;Nationality
of
the
inhabitants&dquo;,
through
Treaties
and
Jurisdiction,
to
&dquo;Disruption
of
river

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