ILC considers a broad scope of international law questions.

ILC considers a broad scope of international law questions

The 34-member International Law Commission, which held its thirty-seventh session at Geneva from 6 May to 26 July, continued efforts towards the codifying of international law on State responsibility for internationally wrongful acts, jurisdictional immunity of States and their property, and offenses against peace and security of mankind.

At the 12-week session, the Commission also considered the status of the diplomatic courier and the diplomatic pouch not accompanied by courier; relations between States and international organizations, and the law of non-navigational uses of international watercourses.

Following the deaths of Robert Q. Quentin-Baxter (New Zealand) on 25 September 1984 and Minister Constantin A. STavropoulos (Greece) on 5 November 1984, and the election on 7 November 1984 of Jens Evensen (Norway) and Ni Zhengyu (China) as Judges of the International Court of Justice, four seats were vacant on the International Law Commission.

Jiahua Huang (China) was elected to fill Mr. Ni's seat; Gaetano Arangio-Ruiz (Italy), Christian Tomuschat (Federal Republic of Germany) and Emmanuel Roukounas (Greec) were elected to the three remaining seats.

Stephen C. McCaffrey was chosen as Special Rapporteur for the topic of the law of the non-navigational uses of international watercourses, to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Judge Evensen.

The International Law Commission, an expert group established by the General Assembly in 1947, drafts articles on various aspects of international law, after which the Assembly may convene an international conference of plenipotentiaries to incorporate the draft articles into multilateral agreements. Commission members serve five-year terms which will expire on 31 December 1986.

State responsibility: The Commission, working towards a final instrument on State responsibility, provisionally adopted a draft article which dealt with a detailed definition of "injured State" with regard to an internationally wrongful act.

Other articles considered by the Commission dealt with the...