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Modern Treaty Law and Practice. By Anthony Aust. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. xxxix, 443. Index. $120, cloth; $44.95, paper.
An author of a treatise on treaty law could do worse than to have a foreword written by Sir Arthur Watts. As Watts incisively notes, "It is the great virtue of this volume that, in looking at the law and its practical context, it grounds the treatment of the law of treaties firmly in the real world of international relations, foreign ministries and diplomacy" (p. xvi). As he also notes, this world is one about which the author of Modern Treaty Law and Practice-Anthony Aust, a senior legal adviser in the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office-"is exceptionally well qualified to write" (id.). The book, conceived as a comprehensive treatment suitable both for the diplomat and for the legal practitioner, begins with the definition of treaty and ends with final clauses.
The "law" in modern treaty law is, of course, usually the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.1 Each chapter of the book accordingly begins with an explanation of the relevant provision of the Convention, but Aust's intention is not to present an intensive study of the Vienna Convention-such as Ian Sinclair's outstanding work.2 Rather, it is the "practice" of modern treaty law that is Aust's particular concern. His perspective is, as he notes, "that of a practitioner; and this book is very much a distillation of some thirty years' experience" (p. 1).
Modern Treaty Law and Practice contains a wealth of information invaluable to the practitioner. It addresses the many bread-and-butter issues lucidly and in detail. What is the difference between credentials to an international conference and full powers? When are full powers required, or not required, and when can you use a telegram or fax to send them? What does it mean to sign a final act that contains the text of an international agreement, as opposed to signing the international agreement itself? How do you count the number of states parties when a multilateral agreement requires a fixed number of parties for entry into force? What are the functions of a depositary, and what does the depositary do when faced with the awkward situation in which an entity...