Books We Really Like: A New Commentary on the Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties

A year ago we told you about a book by two professors from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Olivier Corten and Pierre Klein, who have published a two-volume set of commentary on the 1969 and the 1986 Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties, two of the most important instruments in the international legal order. We're still enthusiastic about the book.

This commentary set (available from Oxford University Press) provides an article-by-article analysis of the VCLT and will be very helpful to scholars, advocates, and jurists who must analyze specific provisions of the Convention.  This must be the definitive reference work for these two conventions. 

More than 100 distinguished authors from twenty different countries contributed different chapters of the book, which compares the 1969 and 1986 conventions article by article.  I'm not going to list all of the contributing authors here, but they include:  

• Mohammed Bedjaoui (former Algerian Minister for Foreign Affairs)
• Peter Kovacs (Judge of the Hungarian Constitutional Court)
• Gerard Niyungeko (Judge at the African Court on Human and People's Rights)
• Philippe Sands (Professor of Law, Univesity College, London)
• William Schabas (Professor, National University of Ireland) 
• Bruno Simma (Judge of the International Court of Justice)

This is a serious reference book (more than two thousand pages long!) that includes extensive bibliographies for each article, scholarly commentary, and valuable case citations.  Click here for more information about the book. 

Congratulations again to Professors Corten and Klein and to each of the contributing authors.

(mew)