The Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on May 21, 1997. It was negotiated in the Sixth (Legal) Committee of the General Assembly, convening for this purpose as a “Working Group of the Whole,” on the basis of draft articles adopted by the International Law Commission (ILC). The negotiations in the working group were open to participation by all UN member states, as well as states that are members of specialized agencies of the United Nations. The Convention is divided into seven parts containing thirty-seven articles: Introduction; General Principles; Planned Measures; Protection, Preservation and Management; Harmful Conditions and Emergency Situations; Miscellaneous Provisions; and Final Clauses. An annex sets forth procedures to be used in the event the parties to a dispute have agreed to submit it to arbitration. This Note will focus on key provisions of the Convention and on those that were the subject of controversy during the working group’s deliberations. It assumes that the reader has access to the text.

The International Law Commission of the United Nations held its forty-ninth session in Geneva from May 12 to July 18, 1997, under the chairmanship of Professor Alain Pellet of France. The Commission concluded its first reading of a draft declaration on nationality in relation to the succession of states; adopted preliminary conclusions on a key element of the topic of reservations to treaties; and appointed new special rapporteurs for state responsibility, international liability for injurious consequences of acts not prohibited by international law, unilateral acts of states, and diplomatic protection. The Commission also established working groups on each of these topics.

The fifty-third session of the UN Commission on Human Rights took place in Geneva from March 10 to April 18, 1997, with Miroslav Somol of the Czech Republic serving as chairman. More than twenty-three hundred individuals were in attendance, representing fifty-three member and ninety-two observer states, over two hundred nongovernmental organizations, and some forty specialized agencies, UN bodies and other organizations.

The Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (Preparatory Committee or committee) held its third and fourth sessions from February 10 to 21, 1997, and August 4 to 15, 1997, bringing the world a step closer to the establishment of a permanent international criminal court (ICC). The United Nations General Assembly, on December 16, 1996, reaffirmed the mandate of the Preparatory Committee and decided that the committee would meet in four more sessions (the final two from December 1 to 12, 1997, and March 16 to April 3, 1998) “in order to complete the drafting of a widely acceptable consolidated text of a convention, to be submitted to a diplomatic conference.” It also decided that “a diplomatic conference of plenipotentiaries will be held in 1998, with a view to finalizing and adopting a convention on the establishment of an international criminal court”; the conference is now scheduled to open in Rome on June 15,1998, and to last five weeks. The General Assembly urged participation in the committee “by the largest number of States so as to promote universal support for an international criminal court” and requested that the Secretary-General establish a voluntary fund to facilitate participation in the committee and the diplomatic conference by the least developed countries.

Land and Maritime Boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria (Cameroon v. Nigeria) , Preliminary Objections, Judgment.

International Court of Justice, June 11, 1998.

On March 29, 1994, Cameroon filed an Application requesting that the Court determine the question of sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula and a disputed parcel of land in the area of Lake Chad (principally Darak and its region) and to specify the course of the land and maritime boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria. It also asked the Court to order an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Nigerian troops from alleged Cameroonian territory in the disputed areas. As the basis of the Court's jurisdiction, Cameroon relied on the declarations made by the parties under Article 36, paragraph 2 of the ICJ Statute.

On April 1-4, 1997, the International Court of Justice visited the sites of the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project in Slovakia and Hungary. This was the first site visit that the Court has undertaken in fulfillment of its judicial function and was therefore an occasion of particular interest to international jurists.