The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (2d ed.). By Ian Sinclair. Manchester and Dover, N.H.: Manchester University Press, 1984. Pp. x, 270. Index. £29.50; $40.

Abstract

Mr Sinclair's book, which analyses the more important elements of the Vienna Treaties Convention, reflects his high degree of scholarship in this important area of international law and the experience he gained not only as a member of the British delegation to the conference which drew up the convention but especially as a member of the conference's drafting committee. Two aspects of the convention are singled out for special attention, the relationship of the convention to customary international law, and the concept of jus cogens. Although the convention is not likely to enter into force for some time, it already exercises considerable influence on the treaty-making practices of states and is commonly referred to in the preparation of bilateral and multilateral treaties. Because the convention is already serving, to a limited degree, as a code of treaty law, the treaty practitioner will find the discussion distinguishing between those provisions of the convention which are a codification of existing treaty law and those which constitute attempts at progressive development of that law of considerable practical value. Mr Sinclair approaches the concept of jus cogens in international law with the same prudence which has marked the attitude of the British judiciary to the analogous domestic law concept of public policy. He concludes that 'there is a place for the concept of jus cogens in international law. Its growth and development will parallel the growth and development of an international legal order expressive of the consensus of the international community as a whole. Such an international legal order is, at present, inchoate, unformed and only just discernible/ The question whether economic coercion constitutes a use of force