Reviews
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1986.tb01710.x |
| Published date | 01 September 1986 |
| Date | 01 September 1986 |
SEFT.
19861
REVIEWS
679
transformation will simultaneously occur in response to the ever-changing
dictates
of
human nature itself.
I11
It is with the above suggestions, tentative and inchoate though they are,
that Unger chooses to conclude
Law
in Modern Society.
He concedes that
“there is no real escape” from the problems
of
social theory which he has
chosen to address, and that social theory remains as a “burden
of
unanswered questions, unresolved paradoxes, and unjustified assumptions”
(p.267). It is perhaps the defining feature
of
the book, nevertheless, that
Unger actually does attempt to straddle the frontiers
of
social theory, and
to provide potential solutions to those puzzles which, as he is only too
aware, remain unsolved. The fact that he has continued to pursue, albeit
often in different ways, many
of
the themes raised in his first two books
suggests that he has certainly not abandoned this quest. Even in his most
recent work, however, Unger has continued to develop his “modernist”
position with a conceptual vagueness which suggests not
so
much that he
should be criticised for theorising at a selected
level
of abstraction, but
rather that,
so
long as he continues to operate at this level, he will always,
if only potentially, be open to the charge
of
failing to pay sufficient
attention to the empirical evidence on offer-evidence which may
sometimes invalidate the conceptualisations to which he ascribes.
NEIL
T.
DUXBURY
REVIEWS
INTERNATIONAL
ADJUDICATION:
PROCEDURAL
ASPECTS
By
V.
S.
MANI
[Nijhoff, Netherlands,
1980.
No price stated.]
THE
procedural aspects
of
international adjudication is a somewhat neglected
topic, though some distinguished authors
-
Rosenne and Gillian White, for
example
-
have written important books on certain elements, and important
monographs exist that deal with very specific elements, such as the Rules
of
Procedure
of
the International Court. In addition, many writings on the
jurisprudence and practice
of
tribunals and courts contain significant incidental
comment on procedural matters.
There is surely scope for a comprehensive, authoritative view on this topic,
that would identify common procedural practices and requirements, analyse
the functions which they perform in a dispute-solving context, and examine
the relevant jurisprudence in relation to these requirements and purposes. It
has to be said that Dr. Mani’s volume does not achieve this magisterial task,
but is welcome and interesting nonetheless. It is a careful and thorough
presentation that draws on an impressively wide range
of
source materials.
These include the Procts-Verbaw and decisions
of
the Anglo-Austrian Mixed
Arbitral Tribunal
of
1920-1930; the Anglo-German Mixed Arbitral Tribunal
of
1921-1932; and the Anglo-Hungarian Mixed Arbitral Tribunal
of
1921-
1930, as well as the less well known Anglo-Bulgarian Mixed Arbitral Tribunal
of
1921-1927. The Claims Commissions
are
included, as well, of course, as
the Permanent Court and the International Court
of
Justice.
Dr. Mani’s footnoting throughout reveals the enormous range of the
materials on which he has drawn and his great knowledge. It is forlorn today
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