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Treaties and Their Practice – Symptoms of Their Rise or Decline. By Georg Nolte. The Hague, Netherlands: Brill Nijhoff, 2018. Pp. 277.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2020

Duncan B. Hollis
Duncan B. Hollis*
Affiliation:
Temple University School of Law
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Type
Book Reviews
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 114 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 785 - 791
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by The American Society of International Law

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References

1 For another metaphoric use of this story, see Jon Elster, Ulysses and the Sirens: Studies in Rationality and Irrationality (1985).

2 See CSIS, The World Trade Organization: The Appellate Body Crisis, at https://www.csis.org/programs/scholl-chair-international-business/world-trade-organization-appellate-body-crisis.

3 See Coronavirus: Trump Moves to Pull US Out of World Health Organization, BBC (July 7, 2020); Brianna Ehley & Alice Miranda Ollstein, Trump Announces U.S. Withdrawal from the World Health Organization, Politico (May 29, 2020); Richard Haass, Trump's Foreign Policy Doctrine? The Withdrawal Doctrine, Wash. Post (May 27, 2020); US and Israel Officially Withdraw from UNESCO, PBS Newshour (Jan 1, 2019).

4 See Greg Webb, Security Council Fails on Global Ceasefire, Arms Control Today (June 2020).

5 The twentieth century had a handful of works dedicated to treaties. E.g., Paul Reuter, Introduction au droit des traités (2d ed. 1985); Sir Ian Sinclair, The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (2d ed. 1984); A. McNair, Law of Treaties (2d ed. 1961). The twenty-first century has witnessed a dramatic increase in such treatments. See, e.g., The Oxford Guide to Treaties (Duncan B. Hollis ed., 2d ed. 2020, 1st ed. 2012); The Oxford Handbook of United Nations Treaties (Simon Chesterman, David M. Malone & Santiago Villalpando eds., 2019); Conceptual and Contextual Perspectives on the Modern Law of Treaties (Michael J. Bowman & Dino Kritsiotis eds., 2018); Robert Kolb, The Law of Treaties: An Introduction (2016); Richard Gardiner, Treaty Interpretation (2015); Barbara Koremenos, The Continent of International Law: Explaining Agreement Design (2016); Anthony Aust, Modern Treaty Law and Practice (3d ed. 2013); Research Handbook on the Law of Treaties (Christian J. Tams, Antonios Tzanakopoulos & Andreas Zimmermann eds., with Athene E. Richford, 2013); Making Treaties Work: Human Rights, Environment and Arms Control (Geir Ulfstein ed., in collaboration with Thilo Marauhn & Andreas Zimmermann, 2007); National Treaty Law and Practice (Duncan B. Hollis, Merritt R. Blakeslee & Benjamin Ederington eds., 2005); Malgosia Fitzmaurice & Olufemi Elias, Contemporary Issues in the Law of Treaties (2005).

6 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Arts. 2(1)(a), 10–17, May 23, 1969, 1155 UNTS 331.

7 Id. Arts. 31(1), 60; see also Lisa L. Martin, Compliance or Effectiveness? Assessing the Reach (and Limits) of Treaty-Making, in The Oxford Guide to Treaties (2d ed. 2020), supra note 5, at 82.

8 As a result, many major works have focused on unpacking and commenting on its contents. See, e.g., The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties: A Commentary (Oliver Dörr & Kirsten Schmalenbach eds., 2d ed. 2018); The Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties: A Commentary (Olivier Corten & Pierre Klein eds., 2011); Mark E. Villiger, Commentary on the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (2009); Treaty Interpretation and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Olufemi Elias & Panos Merkouris eds., 2010); 40 Years of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Alexander Orakhelashvili & Sarah Williams eds., 2010); but see The Law of Treaties Beyond the Vienna Convention (Enzo Cannizzaro ed., 2011).

9 Nolte acknowledges his analysis's Euro-centricity but justifies it for providing the “most illustrative historical examples . . . of systematically relevant treaties” (p. 57).

10 See Thomas M. Franck, Nation Against Nation—What Happened to the U.N. Dream and What the U.S. Can Do About It (1985).

11 E.g., Anthea Roberts, Is International Law International? (2017).

12 For this broader treatment, see The International Rule of Law: Rise or Decline (Heike Krieger, Georg Nolte & Andreas Zimmermann eds., 2019).

13 For one effort at such an evaluation, see Duncan B. Hollis, Binding and Non-Binding Agreements: Sixth Report, OEA/Ser.Q, CJI/doc. 600/20 (Feb. 3, 2020).