This essay explores the legal thought of Hannah Arendt, and is one of the first to do so. Having presented an Arendtian view on law and its relations to politics, it subsequently discusses how an Arendtian view might yield insights on some topical international issues, in particular the much-discussed issue of constitutionalism in international law.

The enquiry into international legal personality in the following article is both descriptive and prescriptive in nature. On the one hand, the phenomenon of the (legal) subject is described and explained, in order to offer a better reflection on, and analysis of, its existence. This holds for both the individual and the (so central to international law) collective subject. On the other hand, our attempt at reconceptualization has a clear normative aspect. Reconstructing (international) legal personality on the basis of anthropology and ethics as an inextricable part of the identity of a person results in a conception of (international) law as justice. And this means that international legal personality reconceptualized along the lines suggested in this paper functions to develop just international institutions and just international law.

Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) was among the most famed intellectuals in his time, but was largely forgotten during the Enlightenment. Intellectually, he stood at an important crossroads, his thought incorporating both late Renaissance traits and precursors of the early modern age. In this article I give a brief intellectual background to Lipsius's thought before concentrating on his thought regarding the lawful interaction between polities, with a focus on lawful government, dissimulation, war, and empire. I then detail the way in which Lipsian thought critically informed later theory and practice. It contained an eclectic mix of divine law, natural law, and positive human law, with some elements borrowed and popularized from earlier writers and others being more original. In the end, his work stands out both as an important inspiration for later theorists and practitioners, and as an example of the many idiosyncrasies and possible trajectories that early international law could have adopted.

In the Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo case the International Court of Justice has – for the first time in its history – found a state to have violated the prohibition of the use of force in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. For the first time also, the Court has discussed the scope of self-defence directly under Article 51. In this article the focus lies on this aspect of a wide-ranging judgment. In finding that Uganda had violated the Charter, the Court kept to its jurisprudence constante; it did not bow to ‘post-11 September’ pressure to extend the logic of Article 51 to private actors. This article discusses the merits of the scholarly claims for both sides, but warns of drawing conclusions for the Court's future jurisprudence – the apparent unity among judges may have to do more with the case rather than the wider issue.

The procurement of information in the sole possession of states is pivotal to the fair and expeditious conduct of trials before the ICTY. At the same time, states possessing sought-after information may have certain legitimate interests they wish to protect in relation to such material, for example national security interests. Taking into account the uniqueness of the ICTY as an institution created by the Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, this article analyses situations where tensions have arisen, or may potentially arise, between state interests and the presentation of evidence crucial to the guilt or innocence of the accused. After setting out the continuously developing law of the ICTY that has striven to reconcile these competing demands, the authors propose alterations to the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, in the form of amendments to Rule 54 bis and a new rule, Rule 54 ter.

In this issue the section on the International Criminal Court (ICC) contains two articles with a special focus on problems related to implementing legislation and co-operation with the Court (Zsuzsanna Deen-Racsmány's ‘Lessons of the European Arrest Warrant for Domestic Implementation of the Obligation to Surrender Nationals to the International Criminal Court’ and Héctor Olásolo's ‘The Lack of Attention to the Distinction between Situations and Cases in National Laws on Co-operation with the International Criminal Court with Particular Reference to the Spanish Case’) as well as a general article by Anne-Marie de Brouwer, ‘Reparation to Victims of Sexual Violence: Possibilities at the International Criminal Court and at the Trust Fund for Victims and Their Families’.

To help states parties circumvent domestic prohibitions on, inter alia, the extradition of nationals, the ICC Statute formally distinguishes ‘surrender’ of individuals to the Court from interstate ‘extradition’. The European Arrest Warrant contains a similar solution. As (successful) constitutional challenges by nationals to be surrendered under a European arrest warrant indicate, such a (semantic) distinction may not suffice. Despite considerable differences between surrender within the EU and to the ICC, these cases offer useful guidance to domestic legislatures occupied with implementing obligations arising under the ICC Statute so that they can ensure that ICC requests concerning the surrender of nationals can be honoured.

This essay examines the impact of the distinction between situations and cases under the Rome Statute in national laws on co-operation with the ICC. It argues that this distinction is likely to create difficulties in three areas: (i) the communication of the notitia criminis to the Court; (ii) admissibility issues in proceedings under Articles 18 and 19 of the Statute; and (iii) the efficacy at national level of admissibility rulings by the Court.

In this contribution the reparation possibilities for victims of sexual violence at the Inter-national Criminal Court and at the Trust Fund for Victims and their families are explored. This is done by explaining first of all why victims of sexual violence – and especially women – are in urgent need of reparation during and after conflict, with a special focus on the situation of female survivors of sexual violence in Rwanda. The reparation possibilities for victims of sexual violence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda are subsequently discussed, followed by a similar discussion with regard to the ICC. Questions such as the nature of the best forms of reparation for victims of sexual violence and at what point they are made are also dealt with. Although the ICC reparations regime offers in theory a good means of providing restorative justice to victims of sexual violence, it is important that the special concerns and needs of such victims are not easily overlooked by the Court and that swift action is taken by the Trust Fund for Victims and their families to address their plight.

At the turn of the twenty-first century rapid advances in the life sciences had culminated in the successful cloning of mammals, with the potential for the development of cures to major diseases. It also raised the spectre of the cloning of human beings – a possibility declared repugnant to human dignity by UNESCO in 1997. In 2001, France and Germany initiated a process in the UN General Assembly to negotiate an international treaty banning the reproductive cloning of human beings. What started as a seemingly straightforward proposal soon ran into the cross-winds of the broader debate on the ethical and legal appropriateness of human embryonic stem-cell research. A major confrontation ensued at the United Nations between those states favouring a narrow ban limited to cloning for reproductive purposes, and those insisting on prohibiting all forms of human cloning, including for ‘therapeutic’ purposes. At play was not only a difference in worldview as to the meaning of human dignity in the twenty-first century (and the boundaries on scientific research), but also considerations relating to respect for cultural diversity, the economic consequences of finding cures to major diseases, and the ability of the technological ‘have-nots’ to limit the activities of the technological ‘haves’.

The first Telders Competition was organized thirty years ago on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Telders International Law Students Debating Society. Student teams from the universities of Bonn, Cologne, Strasbourg, and Leiden participated. It was so successful that the Competition has been organized annually ever since. Nowadays it is considered to be the most prestigious and important international moot court competition in Europe. Teams from over 40 universities compete in the national rounds, with up to 26 teams from as many European countries participating in the international rounds held in the Peace Palace in The Hague.

Books and Articles in the Field of the Prevention and Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes (Autumn 2006).

Compiled by Ingrid Kost exclusively from materials available at the Peace Palace Library, The Hague

William Rasch, Sovereignty and Its Discontents: On the Primacy of Conflict and the Structure of the Political, London, Birkbeck University Press (Cavendish Publishing), 2004, ISBN 1859419844, 208 pp., £23.95 (pb).

‘War is for men, for honour and glory.’

‘And death,’ she pointed out.

‘Of course death. That is why women must be protected. Many babies must be born to replace the dead warriors.’

‘It might be better just to stop the wars.’

‘Pah! It is always useless to talk to women. They have no understanding.’