International Law as an Open System

This collection contains a selection of essays and articles by a leading scholar and practitioner in international law, covering nearlytwo decades of reflection and research.Professor Crawford is Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, Director of the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law, and a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. He was a Commissioner of the Australian Law ReformCommission from 1982-1991 where he worked on the recognition of Aboriginal customary laws, foreign state immunity and admiralty jurisdiction. Subsequently he was elected a member of the United Nations International Law Commission, serving for two termsfrom 1991-2001; he was chairman of the Working Group for the Draft Statute for an International Criminal Court, a process which eventually led to the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and from 1997 Special Rapporteur on state responsibility, successfully guiding the Commission through the second reading of the articles on the Responsibility of States forInternationally Wrongfully Acts, culminating in their adoption in 2001. A member of the New South Wales and English Bars, he has an extensive international practice as counsel and arbitrator in matters relating to international law. The writings cover a wide variety of topics related to international law, ranging from the nature of the international legal system, selfdetermination,the democratic entitlement in international law, state secession and state succession, to the nature of the codification process within the International Law Commission. Also included are Professor Crawford’s reflections on his work as a member ofthe Australian Law Reform Commission.The section on International Responsibility is an invaluable collection of materials by a uniquely qualified writer on a central topic of international law, elaborating on many of the key problems that confronted the International Law Commission during the completion of its work on state responsibility and providing a comprehensive overview of the final stages of the process.