This chapter focuses on the rules set out in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). This chapter begins with the concept of a treaty, before discussing treaty-making, with a particular focus on the conclusion of treaties, their entry into force, and reservations to treaties. The chapter then delves into how treaties operate, namely their scope of application and their interpretation. Finally, this chapter looks at the invalidity, suspension, and termination of treaties.

The chapter lays out the key conceptual building blocks for a comparative study of the politics of memory erasure. It specifically contributes to three emerging areas of study: memory and transition, memory and peacebuilding, and memory and security. The chapter seeks to contribute to answering three interconnected questions. How do different forms of war-to-peace transition shape memorialisation and its absence? Why and how does public memory in the wake of atrocity become securitised, a field of management of threats? How do memorialisation and public amnesia impact peacebuilding? This book contributes to unfolding debates in all three areas by foregrounding non-commemoration and material erasure as active forms of memory labour.

International law on immunities consists of a body of procedural rules that limit when a state may exercise jurisdiction within its territory. International law bars the exercise of jurisdiction in such situations either because the exercise of jurisdiction would threaten the equality of sovereign states or because the capacity of the individual or organization to carry out their functions would be compromised. This chapter begins with the law on state immunity, which has evolved over the centuries from an absolute doctrine to a more restrictive one, which permits exceptions, in particular when states engage in commercial activities. The chapter introduces the immunities that apply to all individuals who serve as state officials, whether they serve as relatively low-level civil servants or as the president or prime minister. The chapter also deals with two special regimes, one governing diplomatic and consular agents who serve abroad, and the other governing international organizations.

Treaties are international agreements that create legal obligations for states, as well as other actors like international organizations. The number of treaties in the field of public international law has grown exponentially since the end of the Second World War, when states turned increasingly to international law and international institutions in order to ensure peaceful coexistence and cooperation. Certain branches of the field, such as international environmental law and international investment law, are now dominated by a substantial collection of treaties, while customary international law plays a secondary role. The importance of treaties in many branches of public international law heightens the importance of understanding ‘the law of treaties’, meaning the law governing this source of international law.

This chapter reflects on the core contributions of the book to the study of memory, transitional justice and peacebuilding. First, it highlights conceptual contributions in rethinking the nature of public amnesia as an active form of labour. Following this, it notes the rich empirical findings on the diversity of ways in which the negation of and disengagement with the past operate, and the diverse ways in which this imprints into materiality, affecting sites of violence and those who encounter them. The chapter also highlights contributions to a dynamic understanding of amnesia and the comparative politics of transition, noting how diverse regimes of memory form based on the type of transition, and how these change over time. Finally, the chapter closes by highlighting the contributions to our understanding of the intersection between public amnesia and peacebuilding.

This chapter explores the ‘forgetting’ of the region as a unique form of public amnesia and the implications of this for conflict transformation. While conflict is often understood on multiple levels, including its regional dimension, peacebuilding and memory work are rarely put in conversation at this level. The chapter explores regional dimensions of memory and argues that these open up a novel and analytically productive lens on the nature and legacy of cross-border conflict and can bolster peacebuilding approaches. Taking the key case study of the Great Lakes Region of Africa, and specifically the regionalising dimensions of the Rwandan genocide, the chapter investigates the impact of two very different regional dimensions of memory on social cohesion. First, it considers the more intuitive ways in which grievances that extend across borders and fractured regional memories continue to fuel conflict. Second, and pushing beyond this, it considers the ways in which the returning diaspora deploys memory born in the wider region in attempts at nation-building. The chapter thus deploys a dynamic approach to memory, exploring mobile memories and the ways in which regional experiences are carried and deployed back in a national context. Overall, it urges us to extend the regional lens beyond the study of the roots of conflict and operational action to the study of post-conflict peacebuilding and commemoration.

After a sketch of the history of the law of the sea and the traditional freedoms of the sea, this chapter discusses the various efforts to codify the law of the sea during the twentieth century, which culminated in the adoption of UNCLOS in 1982. Subsequently, the chapter examines the legal regimes governing the various maritime zones, as well as two international areas, the high seas and the Area. The chapter then takes up thematic issues in the law of the sea, namely the delimitation of maritime boundaries, the protection of the marine environment, the special interests of developing countries, and the system for the settlement of law of the sea disputes. The chapter concludes by noting that despite the relatively comprehensive scope of UNCLOS, a number of new challenges have arisen with respect to the law of the sea, especially as a result of human-driven climate change.

This chapter starts by briefly sketching the development of international human rights law. It then presents the main categories, or generations, of human rights and discusses their key characteristics. The chapter subsequently turns to several matters concerning the scope of human rights norms, including their addressees, their territorial scope of application, and the circumstances under which human rights may be restricted by the state. Finally the chapter explains the monitoring and compliance mechanisms for international human rights under the United Nations and the three major regional human rights systems.