Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T13:33:21.427Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Thoughts on Science, Technology and World Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Manfred Lachs*
Affiliation:
International Court of Justice

Extract

During the last two decades, we have frequently heard about a “crisis” in the kingdom of international law. Without engaging in semantics, one can understand the word “crisis” in its normal dictionary meaning as “a turning point in the progress of anything”; more, “a state of affairs in which a decisive change for better or worse is imminent.” However, these connotations are not necessarily present in the minds of those who apply the term to international law. They intend rather to refer to the weakness to which it is condemned, to its subordinate role and fragile existence; even international lawyers may speak of its “ambiguity.” In some instances, they point to the prevalence of a sense that “resort to legal arguments by policy-makers may be detrimental to world order and thereby counterproductive for the state that uses such arguments.” Thus, a picture of gloom is painted and the world almost consigned to lawlessness in international relations.

Type
Views From the Bench
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See, e.g., my Is There a Crisis in International Law? (inaugural lecture for the B. V. A. Röling Chair, University of Groningen, Mar. 13, 1990).

2 The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1973). For Hippocrates, the famous doctor, a “cri sis” was the “turning point of a disease.” Id.

3 Stanley Hoffmann, Introduction to Lawrence Scheinman & David Wilkinson, International Law and Political Crisis, at xi, xvi (1968) (emphasis omitted).

4 “[L]aw simply does not deal with such questions of ultimate power—power that comes close to the sources of sovereignty.” Dean Acheson, Remarks, 57 ASIL Proc. 13, 14 (1963).

5 See Hoffmann, supra note 3, at xviii:

The tragedy of contemporary international law i[s] that of a double divorce: first, between the old liberal dream of a world rule of law, and the realities of an international system of multiple mini-dramas that always threaten to become major catastrophes; second, between the old dream and the new requirements of moderation ….

6 Id. at xvii. See also Bruno Simma, Volkerrecht in der Krise, 20 Österreichische Zeitschrift fur Aussenpolitik 273 (1980) (he prefers what he calls classical international law—the respublica Christiana); Alfred Verdross & Bruno Simma, Universelles Völkerrecht Wien 32 ff. (1976).

7 The late distinguished jurist Michel Virally suggested that this was due to the fact “que le droit international soit aujourd'hui beaucoup plus coloré idéologiquement que ce n'était le cas dans le passé.” He wondered whether it was possible to study international law from a nonideological point of view, “c'est à dire d'une étude ‘neutre’.” Panorama du droit international contemporain, 183 Recueil des Cours 34–35 (1983 V).

8 See Ruth L. Sward, World Military and Social Expenditures 6–7 and footnotes (1983), where she claims that “they have caused 16 million deaths, a majority in Asia.”

9 Signed May 31, 1991, by President dos Santos and the leader of the opposition, Jonas Savimbi.

10 See especially SC Res. 660 (Aug. 2, 1990); 661 (Aug. 6, 1990); 662 (Aug. 9, 1990); 664 (Aug. 18, 1990); 665 (Aug. 25, 1990); 666 (Sept. 13, 1990); 667 (Sept. 16, 1990); 674 (Oct. 29, 1990); 677 (Nov. 28, 1990); 678 (Nov. 29, 1990).

11 Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa) notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970), 1971 ICJ Rep. 16, 56, para. 127 (Advisory Opinion of June 21) [hereinafter Namibia]. I recall the occasion, having taken part in the drafting.

12 “In this election, there have been no losers—the whole people of Namibia have been victorious, united in their dedication to peace, reconciliation and the future.” UN Chron., Mar. 1990, at 41 (quoting Martti Ahtisaari, the Secretary-General's special representative in Windhoek).

13 See Jean de Bloch, Modern Weapons and Modern War, at xcm (R. C. Long trans., London, 1900).

14 See Frederick Adams Woods & Alexander Baltzly, is War Diminishing? 43, 103 (1915).

15 It may be worth recalling that, about a century ago in 1880 at the Congress of Madrid, only 14 states participated; at Berlin in 1885, 15; at the second Hague Conference in 1907, 44; at the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1920, 47, and in 1921, 52; and at the first session of the UN General Assembly, in 1945, 51. Today there are more than 170 states on the globe. See Bernard Victor Aloysius Röling, International Law in an Expanded World, at xiv–xx (1960).

16 “It is certainly true that until recently the nuclear superpowers have tended to be more con cerned with their own mutual relationship than with the resolution of regional conflicts … .” Also, “the super-imposition of East-West rivalry has exacerbated regional conflicts.” Brian Urquhart, Decolonization and World Peace 19, 18, respectively (1989).

17 Raymond Aron, in Arts (Paris), May 16, 1962. Other writers have gone so far as to claim: “Almost every day we read of cases, some seriousf,] some less so, in which states have resorted to armed attack: wars, punitive expeditions into foreign territory against terrorist bases, aeroplanes intercepted, nuclear plants bombed, hazardous operations to save nations held hostage abroad by bands of terrorists or state authorities.” Antonio Cassese, Violence and Law in the Modern Age 30 (1988). This is, to say the least, a serious exaggeration. Armed attacks do not occur almost every day, not even every month; they are dying out slowly, but inevitably. This observation, and those of other writers, may deserve the qualification made by Sir Lewis Namier, the great British historian, of “an intuitive understanding of how things do not happen.”

18 See Antonio Cassese, International Law in a Divided World 32–33 (1986). The Soviet Union's presence split the international community. Strangely enough, the claim was made that the birth of one state split the world, while the “emergence in the 1960s of numerous developing countries delivered the fatal blow to its former cultural and ideological unity,” which had its origin in the Treaty of Westphalia. Id. at 32. Others saw “the cleavage between Marxist-Leninism and the Western ideology of the ‘open society’ as the main fissure in the world community, but perhaps even more fundamental than this is the perennial contrast between East and West.” Dennis Lloyd, The Idea of Law 220 (1964).

19 Quincy Wright, Contemporary International Law: A Balance Sheet 6 (1955), rightly claimed some years ago: “The artificial iron curtains of our day are not as impervious as were the material barriers of distance, mountain, sea and desert in the days of our ancestors.”

20 Lionel Balout, Methodology and African Prehistory 412 (Unesco General History of Africa, vol. 1) (quoting Teilhard de Chardin). See generally my The Development and General Trends of International Law in Our Time, 169 Recueil des Cours (1980 IV).

21 Eric Korn, Onward and Upward, The Times (London), Feb. 1985 [hereinafter The Times],

22 Cf. Peter Mathias, Introduction to Science and Society, 1600–1900, at vii–viii (1972): “The external relations of science, investigations into the impact of scientific knowledge within its wider historical context … has received much less attention.”

23 L. Burstyn, Tradition and Understanding, School and Society, Nov. 1969.

24 Cornelius Agrippa, de Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarium 112 (trans. London, 1694) (1531).

25 See K. N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (1985). The Crusades helped in the development of foreign trade as merchants of the West entered the Arab and Byzantine world and thus influenced mercantile practice in both. There was also a notable influence of the Italian merchant republics. They were, at a certain stage of history, a chapter in the dialogue between East and West and, as Gibbon claimed, the “World's Debate.”

26 J. G. Crowther, Discoveries and Inventions of the Twentieth Century 1 (4th ed. 1955).

At first the wheel was driven by manual toil or by the use of bees, but when, after many centuries, wind and water were used, man saw opening up a vital vista which promised speed of production and more leisure to him who could harness the natural elements to his service.

Id. A distinguished teacher of genetics suggests that “the most important genetical event in population was the invention of the bicycle. Having got on its bike, the human population is now going through a massive period of outbreeding.” Dr. J. S. Jones, Sunday Times (London), Nov. 17, 1991, News Review at 2.3. See also his Reith Lecture, BBC (Nov. 13, 1991).

27 See Paul Lucretius, The Poem of Nature (1976).

28 J. W. N. Sullivan, The Basis of Modern Science 9 (1939).

29 See also A. J. Molland, Mediaeval Ideas of Scientific Progress, 39 J. Hist. Ideas 570 (1978); 1 P. Tuhem, Le Système du Monde 1 (1913).

30 About 170 years ago, William Whewell attempted to present the history of inductive sciences.

Equipped with a reasonably clear notion of what a good piece of science should look like, he then embarked during the early 1930s on two separate lines of enquiry: one to determine the truth of the claims of such science … and the other to determine the process by which such science emerges.

Menachem Fisch, William Whewell, Philosopher of Science 37 (1991).

31 Charles Webster, The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine, and Reform, 1626–1660 (1975).

32 Gresham College, which was to become the center of science, was founded in 1597. The draft preamble to the Statute of the Royal Society of 1662 stated: “The business of the Royal Society is: to improve the knowledge of natural things, and all useful arts, Manufactures, Mechanic practices, Engynes and Inventions by experiment.” Martha Ornstein, The Role of Scientific Societies in the 17th Century 108–09 (1928); see also Charles Babbage, the Economy of Machinery and Manufacture 379 (1835).

33 T. S. Ashton, The Industrial Revolution 15–16 (1948); see generally 1 History of Technology (Norman Smith ed., 1976).

34 Ritchie Calder, Man and the Cosmos: The Nature of Science Today 5 (1968).

35 Mathias, supra note 22, at 72. Some scientists hold that “modern science first reached the walking and talking stage about 1700, and only about 1780 did it start growing into manhood.” James B. Conant, Modern Science and Modern Man 14 (1954).

36 Mathias, supra note 22, at 79.

37 “Science does not only describe reality; it also creates a new reality whenever it takes an active attitude, not waiting for issues but posing them.” Hugo Steinhaus, The Ways of Applied Mathematics 19 (1949) (trans, from Polish by author).

38 On Descartes, see Sullivan, supra note 28, at 23. Kepler did not regard the Copernican hypoth esis as “a mathematical device” but found that “[i]ts mathematical simplicity and aesthetic charm was the proof that it was true.” Id. at 14.

39 Robert Y. Jennings, The Progress of International Law, 1958 Brit. Y.B. Int'l L. 334, 336. He also referred to Sir Henry Maine's 12 posthumously published lectures of 1887 as giving the “impres sion of international law as a small, peripheral subject, more nearly related to government, history and international relations than to law properly so called.” Id. at 335.

40 Walter Bagehot, Physics and Politics 1 (1869). About 70 years later, Sir James Fraser sug gested in The Golden Bough: “Here at last, after groping about in the dark for countless ages, man has hit upon a clue to the labyrinth, a golden key that opens many locks in the treasury of nature.”

41 John Boyd Orr, Nation, May 8, 1950.

42 Calder, supra note 34, at 162.

43 Established in New York on July 22, 1948.

44 The WHO counts 166 members and one associate member. It works within the framework of global and regional programs and cooperates with other international organizations.

45 World Health Organization, VII Annual Report (1987) (evaluating the strategy for good health for all by the year 2000).

46 In the two centuries that have elapsed since the time of James Watt, “the material conditions of life have altered to a greater extent than in the previous 1,700 years.” Crowther, supra note 26, at 29.

47 Frank Sherwood Taylor, A History of Industrial Chemistry 181 (1957). See also Martin Sherwood, New Worlds in Chemistry (1979).

48 It was still to a large extent “a natural history of compounds and a body of techniques of manipulating them.” Sherwood Taylor, supra note 47, at 333. Only much later was it transformed into “a Cartesian science.”

49 “Since the turn of the century the physicist has passed through what amounts to an intellectual crisis forced by the discovery of experimental facts of a sort which he had not previously envisaged and which he would not even have thought possible.” P. W. Bridgeman, Philosophical Implications of Physics, Am. Acad. Arts & Sci., Bull., Feb. 1950.

50 Bernard Lovell & Tom Margison, The Explosion of Science, in Unesco Encyclopedia 2 (1967).

51 Peter Medawar, The Inside Story, Times Literary Supp., Nov. 24, 1978, at 13.

52 Frank J. Malina, Some Reflections on the Difference between Science and Art, in Data: Directions in Art, Theory and Aesthetics 134 (A. Hill ed., 1968).

53 François Jacob, in L'Express, Oct. 26, 1970, at 79.

54 Fred Hoyle, The Nature of the Universe 3 (rev. ed. 1960).

55 Quoted in From Semaphore to Satellite 119 (1965) (published on the centenary of the ITU).

56 The Times, Nov. 25, 1968 (quoting speech by Lord Ritchie Calder, President of the Conservation Society, Nov. 24, 1968).

57 E.g., the big bang theory and the recent reflections of Stephen Hawking. See the latter's A Brief History of Time (1989), and the interesting view of his work by the President of the Royal Society: “C. P. Snow made us bone up on the second law of thermodynamics. All that seems child's play, now Hawking wants us to imagine a back-to-the-future universe made up of ‘quarks’ that come in six different flavours and calculated in numerals trailing 64 zeros. It is not easy.” George Porter, Tale of the Century, Sunday Times (London), July 22, 1990, at 8.8.

58 The Times, Dec. 1, 1987 (citing Sir George Porter's annual address to the Royal Society).

59 Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation (1976). One could add here the words of Ritchie Calder, who when addressing the Imperial Institute said:

Who at the time could have appreciated the future significance of a French chemist working on diseases of the silkworm; … or of an expatriate German worrying about time and motion in a patent office in Bern? There is no area of general enquiry which is exempt from making discoveries and there is no discovery that is free from risk.

Times Literary Supp., Feb. 2, 1970, at 122.

60 Lord Solly Zuckermann, Scientific Expectations, T. L. S. Lectures, Times Literary Supp., Oct. 29, 1971.

61 C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures: A Second Look 67 (1962).

62 See Max Huber, Geschichte des Modernes Verkehrs 61 ff. (1909); see also Howard Robinson, The British Post Office: A History (1948). The Count of Thurn and Taxis was given a franchise by Emperor Maximilian I to run what is claimed to have been the world's first postal service. See generally Bern Postal Congress, Docs. (1847); George A Codding, Jr., The Universal Postal Union, Co-Ordinator of the International Mails (1964).

63 See the trilogy by Jack Simmons, The System and its Working (1978), The Railway in Town and Country (1986), and The Victorian Railway (1990), and his Railways: An Anthology (1990). These remarkable studies depict the development of railways from their beginning. The an thology collects the works of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, T. S. Eliot and John Betjeman (his poem on the metropolitan railway). One quotation is worth reproducing: “A railway station is, after all, significant of one's life's pleasures, of its memories and anticipations, and some of its sorrows” (A. G. Bradley).

64 See note 63 supra.

65 Chauncey M. Depew, Address delivered in New York (Jan. 21,1887), in Masterpieces of American Eloquence 398 (1900).

The railroad man is in a sense the servant of them all … . With those who are actually in the service, and those who contribute by supplies, one tenth of the working force of the United States is in the railroad service; and that tenth includes the most energetic men and most intelligent among the workers of this magnificent country.

Id.

66 See main railway statistics published by the Secretariat of the International Union of Railways, Paris (1987).

67 Convention concerning international carriage by rail (COTIF), May 9, 1980, 1987 Gr. Brit. TS No. 1 (Cmnd 8535). See M. Allegret, Transports Internationaux Ferroviaires, fasc. 680 (1989).

68 The Convention international sur le transport des marchandises par chemins de fer, Oct. 14, 1890, provided for the resolution of disputes by the central office. The old system has evolved and been replaced by provisions of 1952 and 1980. See, e.g., COTIF, supra note 67, Art. 1215. Three types of arbitration are provided for: between enterprises, between enterprises and users, and between users.

69 See Matyassy & Mutz, La Convention relative aux transports internationaux ferroviaires (COTIF) du 9 mai 1980, Bulletin des Transports Internationaux par Chemins de Fer, Feb. 1, 1981, at 2–38.

70 E.g., links among buses, touring cars, trains, yachts, helicopters and the Concorde. The Channel tunnel is the first railway and road link between France and Great Britain. Five bridges and tunnels are to be completed between 1994 and 2005 within Denmark, between Denmark and Sweden, and between Denmark and Germany; all will provide rail connections.

71 It may be amusing to note that the 80-day journey took: from London to Suez via Brindisi, by rail and sea, 7 days; from Suez to Bombay, 13 days; from Bombay to Calcutta, 3 days; from Calcutta to Hong Kong, 13 days; from Hong Kong to Yokohama, 6 days; from Yokohama to San Francisco, 22 days; from San Francisco to New York, 7 days; and from New York to London, 9 days. A timetable jointly drawn up by Thomas Cook and Lloyds Maritime Information Services for the Sunday Times predicted that Fogg would not return until at least January 12, 1873, 20 days late.

72 For the first attempts to define the legal status of airspace, see 1902 Institut de Droit International, Annuaire (Brussels); 1906 id. (Ghent); 1911 id. (Madrid). For the instruments, see the Paris Convention on Regulation of Aerial Navigation, Oct. 13, 1919, 11 LNTS 173, 1 International Legislation 339 (Manley O. Hudson ed., 1931) [hereinafter Paris Convention]; the Spanish-Ameri can Convention on Aerial Navigation, Nov. 1, 1926, 3 id. at 2019 (1931); the Convention on Interna tional Civil Aviation, Dec. 7, 1944, 61 Stat. 1180, TIAS No. 1591, 15 UNTS 295 (ratified and accepted by 150 states) [hereinafter Chicago Convention]; the International Air Services Transit Agreement, Dec. 7, 1944, 59 Stat. 1693, 84 UNTS 389. Eighteen annexes have been added to the Chicago Convention. See Table of International Conventions and Other Agreements, in I. H. Philepina Diederiks-Verschoor, An Introduction to Air Law, at xix (1991). On the five free doms, see Andreas F. Lowenfeld, Aviation Law §1.12, at 2-6-2-7 (2d ed. 1981).

73 Convention Relating to Co-operation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol), Dec. 13, 1960, 523 UNTS 117. See also Protocol amending the Convention, Feb. 12, 1981, 1982 Gr. Brit. TS Misc. No. 21 (Cmnd 8662).

74 1988 Lloyds Register.

75 In the interim, many agreements were concluded, such as the Maritime Ports Convention of 1923, those at the Hague Conference in 1930, the four Geneva Conventions of 1958, and the Final Act of the Second Geneva Conference on the Law of the Sea of 1960. See C. J. Colombos, The International Law of the Sea (1967); 2 R.-J. Dupuy & Daniel Vignes, A Handbook on the New Law of the Sea (1991).

76 The International Telegraph Union (1865) and the Radiotelegraph Union (1906) merged in 1932 when the ITU was created.

77 See International Radiotelegraphic Convention, Nov. 6, 1906, Art. 6, 3 Martens Nouveau Recueil (ser. 3) 147, Gr. Brit. TS No. 8, 1909; see also International Telecommunication Convention, Málaga-Torremolinos, Oct. 25, 1973, Art. 35(135), 28 UST 2495, TIAS No. 8572. For the current Conven tion, Nairobi, Oct. 1982, see S. Exec. Rep. No. 4, 99th Cong., 1st Sess. (1986) [hereinafter Nairobi Convention].

78 Gerd D. Wallenstein, Make Room in Space: Harmony and Dissonance in International Telecommunications 33 (ITU Publications, 1982). The great international lawyer, Charles De Visscher, was one of the first to stress the importance of communications law in general. See his Le Droit International des Communications (1924) (lectures at Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationaux, 1921–23). See also Maurice Bourquin, Pouvoir scientifique et droit international, 70 Recueil des Cours 331 (1947 I).

79 International Telecommunication Convention, Málaga-Torremolinos, supra note 77, Art. 33. Further action was taken by the International Frequency Registration Board and the World Adminis trative Radio Conference. See also Nairobi Convention, supra note 77.

80 From Semaphore to Satellite, supra note 55, at 314.

81 See Convention of the World Meteorological Organization, Oct. 11, 1947, 77 UNTS 143; see also World Meteorological Organization [hereinafter WMO], Basic Documents, No. 1, 1987 (list ing 161 member states and 5 member territories).

82 The Global Observation System operates through ten thousand stations on land, seven thousand ships and buoys at sea, three thousand aircraft, and four polar-orbiting and five geostationary satel lites. See also agreements on the Global Telecommunication System and Communication Protocols. 1989 WMO, Annual Report. The WMO and Japan concluded an agreement designating the Japan Meteorological Agency as the Data Center for Greenhouse, Sept. 8, 1989, id. at 1. Japan is developing a satellite system to monitor earthquakes and volcanoes. Space News, Dec. 9–15, 1991.

83 See Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, GA Res. 1963 (XVIII) (Dec. 30, 1963); followed by the well-known Treaty on Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, Jan. 27, 1967, 18 UST 2410, TIAS No. 6347, 610 UNTS 205 [hereinafter Outer Space Treaty]. Further instruments are Convention on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space, Apr. 22, 1968, 19 UST 7570, TIAS No. 6599, 672 UNTS 119; Convention on the International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, Mar. 29, 1972, 24 UST 2389, TIAS No. 7762, 961 UNTS 187; Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space, Jan. 14, 1975, 28 UST 695, TIAS No. 8480, 1023 UNTS 15; and Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, GA Res. 34/68 (Dec. 5, 1979), reprinted in 18 ILM 1434 (1979) [hereinafter Moon Agree ment], Consider also the establishment of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organiza tion (Aug. 20, 1971), the European Space Agency (May 30, 1975) and other regional organizations. See also Convention on the International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT), Sept. 3, 1976, 31 UST 1, TIAS No. 9605; Louis B. Sohn, The Impact of Technological Changes on International Law, 30 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1 (1973).

84 One such accident concerned a Soviet nuclear-powered satellite that fell on Canadian territory. The matter was settled by agreement between the two parties and the Soviet Union paid damages to Canada. Canadian Department of External Affairs, Communiqué (Apr. 2, 1981).

85 Outer Space Treaty, supra note 83, Art. I.

86 See also Moon Agreement, supra note 83, Art. 4.

87 “The Area and its resources are the common heritage of mankind.” Convention on the Law of the Sea, opened for signature Dec. 10, 1982, Art. 136, UN Doc. A/CONF.62/122, reprinted in United Nations, Official Text of the United Nations Convention on the law of the Sea with Annexes and Index, UN Sales No. E.83.V.5 (1983). See also id., Principles Governing the Area, Arts. 137–49.

88 International Telecommunication Convention, Málaga-Torremolinos, supra note 77, Art. 33, which declares that “radio frequencies and the geostationary orbit are limited natural resources.” On the distinction between geosynchronous and geostationary satellites, see ITU, Radio Regulations, RLR 1/18, 84 B.F.A. and 84 B.G. (1979). See also Kim G. Gibbons, Orbital Saturation: The Necessity for International Regulation of Geosynchronous Orbits, 9 Cal. W. Int'l L.J. 139 (1979); Stephen Gorove, Geostationary Orbit: Issues of Law and Policy, 73 AJIL 444 (1973).

89 See Space News, Mar. 30-Apr. 5, 1992.

90 See International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Dec. 16, 1966, Art. 19, 999 UNTS 171; European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, opened for signature Nov. 4, 1950, Art. 10, 213 UNTS 221. See also Declaration of Guiding Principles on the Use of Satellite Broadcasting for the Free Flow of Information, the Spread of Education and Greater Cultural Exchange, Res. 4.11, 1 Unesco, Records of the General Conference, 17th Sess., at 67 (1972).

91 See Principles Governing the Use by States of Artificial Earth Satellites for International Direct Television Broadcasting, GA Res. 37/92, Annex (Dec. 10, 1982).

92 Rescue operations are helped by signals transmitted via satellites. See The Times, Mar. 3, 1983 (on yachtsman who ran aground on West Falkland).

93 Karl Lademann, Wesen und Aufgaben des internationalen Ausschusses zur Frequenzregistrierung, 9 Jahrbuch für Internationales Recht 264, 369 (1959/60).

94 Photography from aircraft may be prohibited. Report of the Legal Sub-committee of the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, UN Doc. A/AC. 105/147 (1975) (positions of Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil); see also the Paris and Chicago Conventions, supra note 72.

95 See Principles Relating to Remote Sensing of the Earth from Outer Space, GA Res. 41/65 (Dec. 3, 1986); Agreement on Remote Sensing from Satellites and Aircraft, May 14, 1971, Canada-U.S., 22 UST 684, TIAS No. 7125. See also A. E. Gotlieb, The Impact of Technology on the Development of Contemporary International Law, 170 Recueil des Cours 115, esp. 257 ff. (1981 I).

96 See Intelsat v. Martin Marietta Corp., 765 F.Supp. 1327 (D. Md. 1991). The plaintiff sought to recover losses of more than $400 million due to a failed launch (from a wiring error by the respond ent's technicians). However, launch contracts require waivers of responsibility and the 1929 Warsaw Convention on liability standards for aircraft was not applicable. See Space News, Dec. 2–8, 1991.

97 Convention on the Continental Shelf, Apr. 29, 1958, Art. 2(4), 15 UST 471, TIAS No. 5578, 499 UNTS 311.

98 Supra note 87, pt. VI, Art. 76.

99 See Continental Shelf (Tunis./Libya), 1982 ICJ Rep. 18, 43, para. 36 (Feb. 24). Twenty per cent of the world's oil can be extracted offshore. J. Ocean Bus., June 1980, at 57.

100 See Gotlieb, supra note 95, at 158 ff.

101 See Law of the Sea Convention, supra note 87, pt. V, Exclusive Economic Zone.

102 See Antarctic Treaty, Dec. 1, 1959, 12 UST 794, TIAS No. 4780, 402 UNTS 71; Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, Oct. 4, 1991, reprinted in 30 ILM 1455 (1991). See generally Christopher C. Joyner & Sudhir K. Chopra, The Antarctic Legal Regime (1988); The Future of Antarctica: Exploitation Versus Preservation (Grahame Cook ed., 1990).

103 Lachs, supra note 20, at 120.

104 Harry Rothman, Murderous Province: A Study of Pollution in Industrial Society (1972).

105 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, Mar. 22, 1985, reprinted in 26 ILM 1529 (1987).

106 Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident, Sept. 26, 1986, reprinted in 25 ILM 1369 (1986); Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency, Sept. 26, 1986, reprinted in id. at 1377.

107 J. W. Gough, Fundamental Law in English Constitutional History 62 (1955).

108 The first Conventions date from 1883 and 1886. The World Intellectual Property Organization was born in 1967. One of its important objectives is the development of treaty law regarding intellec tual property and its protection, which involves Unesco. See Records of the Intellectual Proprrty Conferences, Stockholm, 11 June–14 July, 1967 (1971). WIPO is charged with the protec tion of rights relating to literary, artistic and scientific works, performances or performing artists, phonographs and broadcasts, inventions in all fields of human endeavor, scientific discoveries, indus trial designs, trademarks, service marks, commercial names and designations, and all other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields; it also engages in protection against unfair competition. This definition is indicative only and not exhaustive. See Arpad Bogsch, The First Hundred Years Of The Paris Convention For The Protection Of Industrial Property 187 ff. (1983).

109 See J. Chesser, Semi-conductor Chip Protection: Changing Roles for Copyright and Competition, 15 Intell. Prop. L. Rev. 463 (1986). It was correctly pointed out that integrated circuits “are extremely expensive” but could be copied at very low cost.

110 See Gerald Dworkin, British and E.E.C. Law in Practice, in Piracy and Counterfeiting of Industrial Property and Copyright (1983); see also A. Thiern, Piracy of Trademarks: A Matter for States, 11 Intell. Prop. L. Rev. (1982). On problems between developed and developing countries in this regard, see, e.g., La Défense de la propriété intellectuelle, Le Monde, Nov. 20, 1990, at 28.

111 On municipal law, see John G. Fleming, The Law of Torts 277–78 (2d ed. 1961).

112 The first provisions of that type are of very recent origin: “Any person who suffers damage on the surface shall, upon proof only that the damage was caused by an aircraft in flight or by any person or thing falling therefrom, be entitled to compensation … .” Rome Convention on Damage Caused by Foreign Aircraft to Third Parties on the Surface, Oct. 7, 1952, Art. 1(1), 310 UNTS 181 [hereinafter Rome Convention].

113 Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy, July 29, 1960, 956 UNTS 251 [hereinafter 1960 Paris Convention]; Brussels Supplementary Convention to the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy, Jan. 31, 1963, 1041 UNTS 358; Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, May 21, 1963, 1063 UNTS 265.

114 See Rome Convention, supra note 112, Art. 5; 1960 Paris Convention, supra note 113, Art. 9. A more recent treaty on the subject is Convention relating to Civil Liability in the Field of Maritime Carriage of Nuclear Material, Dec. 17, 1971, 974 UNTS 255 (so-called carrier's liability).

115 Mar. 29, 1972, 24 UST 2389, TIAS No. 7762, 961 UNTS 187 (entered into force Sept. 1, 1972). For a cross-waiver of liability, see Agreement on Cooperation in the Detailed Design, Development, Operation, and Utilization of the Permanently Manned Civil Space Station, Sept. 29, 1988, noted in 28 ILM 1595 (1989).

116 See Percy H. Winfield, The Myth of Absolute Liability, 42 Int'l L.Q. Rev. 37 (1926); see also Manfred Lachs, Challenge of the Environment, 39 Int'l & Comp. L.Q. 663 (1990).

117 For agreements on liability for damage arising from atomic or nuclear engines in the harbors of some countries, see Use of Greek Ports by the N.S. Savannah, Apr. 24, 1962, Greece-U.S., Art. X, 13 UST 1379, 1382, TIAS No. 5099; Use of German Territorial Waters and Ports by the N.S. Savannah, Nov. 29, 1962, FRG-U.S., Art. VII, 13 UST 2567, 2569–71, TIAS No. 5223.

118 A rather restrictive definition was given by Lord Atkin in 1932:

Who, then, in law, is my neighbour? The answer seems to be—persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected when I am directing my mind to the acts or omissions which are called in question.

Donoghue v. Stevenson, 1932 App. Cas. 562, 580 (H.L.). See C. Wilfred Jenks, Liability for Ultra-hazardous Activities in International Law, 117 Recueil des Cours 99, 194 (1966 I). See also Law of the Sea Convention, supra note 87, Arts. 139 (regarding the Area), 194–208, 212–22; Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, Dec. 29, 1972, 26 UST 2403, TIAS No. 8165, 1046 UNTS 120; Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution from Land-based Sources, June 4, 1974, 1978 Gr. Brit. TS 64 (Cmnd 7251), reprinted in 13 ILM 352 (1974); Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution, Nov. 13, 1979, reprinted in 18 ILM 1442 (1979); Transboundary Air Pollution (Cees Flinterman, Barbara Kwiatkowska & Johan Lammers eds., 1986); Alexandre C. Kiss & Dinah Shelton, International Environmental Law 348 ff. (1991).

119 See Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, Sept. 19, 1987, reprinted in 26 ILM 1541 (1987); Helsinki Declaration on the Protection of the Ozone Layer, May 2, 1989, reprinted in 28 ILM 1335 (1989); Adjustments to the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, June 29, 1990, reprinted in 30 ILM 537 (1991). See also the earlier UN Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, Dec. 10, 1976, 1108 UNTS 151; Unesco Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, Nov. 23, 1972, 27 UST 37, TIAS No. 8226; the Hague Declaration on the Environ ment, Mar. 11, 1989, reprinted in 28 ILM 1308 (1989); and the instruments signed at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, reprinted in 31 ILM 814 (1992).

120 World Resources Institute, Transferring Technology: An Agenda for Environmentally Sustainable Growth in the 21st Century (1991).

121 Robin Clarke & Judi Palmer, The Human Environment: Action or Disaster? An Account of the Public Hearing Held in London, June 1982, at 68 (UNEP 1983).

122 See, e.g., Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail, supra note 67, title 5; Thomas Buergenthal, Lawmaking in the International Civil Aviation Organization 57 ff. (1969) (on the quasi-legislative powers of ICAO).

123 See North Sea Continental Shelf (FRG/Den.; FRG/Neth.), 1969 ICJ Rep. 3, 42, para. 73, and 43, para. 74 (Feb. 20) [hereinafter North Sea]; Stephen C. Neff, The U.N. Code of Conduct for Liner Conferences, 14 J. World Trade L. 398 (1980); Leslie Kanuk, The UNCTAD Code of Conduct for Liner Conferences: Trade Milestone or MillstoneTime Will Soon Tell, 6 Nw. J. Int'l L. & Bus. 357 (1984); UN Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations, May 21, 1983, UN Doc. E/1983/17/ Rev.1, Ann. II, at 12, reprinted in 23 ILM 626 (1984).

124 From December 1946 to May 30, 1989.

125 For more on the subject, see Bin Cheng, Air Law, in [Installment] 11 Encyclopedia of Public International Law 9–11 (Rudolf Bernhardt ed., 1989).

126 See Outer Space Treaty, supra note 83, Art. XI; Moon Agreement, supra note 83, Art. 11(1), (5); Law of the Sea Convention, supra note 87, esp. pt. XI (on the Area).

127 See SPACE NEWS, Dec. 9–15, 1991.

128 See text at and note 95 supra. Gotlieb, supra note 95, at 268 ff., correctly pointed out that “there is great fear in many States that resource-related data can enhance the knowledge and thus the bargaining power of the States possessing it.”

129 The provision on “consultations with a State whose territory is sensed in order to make available opportunities for participation and enhance the mutual benefits to be derived therefrom” seems inadequate. GA Res. 41/65, supra note 95, Principle XIII.

130 See International Telecommunication Convention, Malaga-Torremolinos, supra note 77, Art. 33(131).

131 See my Some Reflections on International Law in Peace and War, 1971 U. Tol. L. Rev. 11, 14.

132 Some other instruments concluded during the same period were intended to have an indirect impact on this subject. See, e.g., Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and under Water, Aug. 5, 1963, 14 UST 1313, TIAS No. 5433, 480 UNTS 43; Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, July 1, 1968, 21 UST 483, TIAS No. 6839, 729 UNTS 161. One might also briefly mention the four Geneva Conventions on Protection of Victims of War, Aug. 12, 1949, and the two Protocols Additional thereto, June 8, 1977; the Outer Space Treaty, supra note 83; the Treaty of Tlatelolco, Feb. 14, 1967 (prohibiting nuclear weapons in Latin America); the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-ballistic Missile Systems, May 26, 1972, USSR-U.S.; the Interim Agreement on Certain Measures with respect to the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, May 26, 1972, USSR-U.S.; the Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, June 18, 1979, USSR-U.S.; and the Convention on the Prohibition of Military Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, supra note 119.

133 Peter Medawar, Limits of Science 21 (1948). He admitted elsewhere that “[t]hose who are actively engaged in science know very well that scientific revolutions are continuously in progress.” Out of the Machine Age, Times Literary Supp., Dec. 3, 1976, at 15.

134 Max Perutz, But First Came the Vital Spot, Daily Telegraph (London), Sept. 11, 1989. See also his Is Science Necessary?, in Is Science Necessary? Essays on Science and Scientists (1988). He defends science, following Francis Bacon, as “effecting all things possible.”

135 Robert James Forbes, The Conquest of Nature 182 (1970).

136 See generally Jacques Ellul, La Technique ou L'Enjeu du Siècle (1965).

137 Oscar Schachter, International Law in Theory and Practice, 178 Recueil des Cours 109 (1982 V).

138 Geoffrey Howe, Sovereignty and Interdependence: Britain's Place in the World, 66 Int'l Aff. (London) 675, 676 (1990).

139 About a hundred years ago, Lord Salisbury suggested in a speech to the British Association that “[m]an may, perhaps, have overrated the progress of 19th century research in opening the secrets of nature, but it is difficult to overrate the brilliant service it has rendered in ministering to the comfort and diminishing the sufferings of man.” This may have been true of the past century, but its achieve ment has been overtaken by contemporary events.

140 For example, replying to some questions I put to him, he said:

When after World War II nuclear power was developed for civil purposes, the people concerned were under the impression that they knew all that needed to be known to deal with safety factors and the disposal of nuclear waste. They were definitely under the impression that the engineers knew how to build power stations which would avert the leakages that occurred in the Three Mile Island plant and then at Chernobyl. They happened to be wrong, in the same way as several modern pharmaceuticals, like thalidomide, turned out in practice to be disastrous.

141 North Sea, 1969 ICJ Rep. at 222, 230 (Lachs, J., dissenting).

142 Namibia, 1971 ICJ Rep. at 31, para. 53.

143 Fisheries Jurisdiction (UK v. Ice.), 1974 ICJ Rep. 3, 19, para. 40 (July 25).

144 Louis Henkin, International Law: Politics, Values and Functions, 216 Recueil des Cours 9, 347 (1989 IV); see Oliver Wendell Holmes, Law in Science and Science in Law, 12 Harv. L. Rev. 443 (1899); see also E. W. Patterson, Law in a Scientific Age 6, 32, 39–40, 74–75 (1963).

145 South West Africa, Second Phase (Eth. v. S. Afr.; Liber, v. S. Afr.), 1966 ICJ Rep. 6, 252 (July 18) (Tanaka, J., dissenting).

146 George Macaulay Trevelyan, Clio Rediscovered, in Clio a Muse, and Other Essays (1913), quoted in Fritz Stern, The Varieties of History: From Voltaire to the Present 230, 233, 243 (1956). The essay was intended as a polemic with J. B. Bury, The Science of History.