Topic 1

At the end of the six-week Rome Diplomatic Conference for an International Criminal Court, on July 17, 1998, 120 countries (including virtually all of the United States' allies) voted in favor of the Treaty containing the Statute for an International Criminal Court. The United States joined China, Libya, Iraq, Israel, Qatar, and Yemen as the only seven countries voting in opposition to the Treaty. Twenty-one countries abstained.

 

The United States is substantially in arrears in its payment of amounts the United Nations General Assembly has assessed against it for the UN regular budget and for UN peacekeeping. The question arises whether there are any legal consequences for a failure to pay such assessments.

 

The UN Charter contains a single sanction for failure to pay assessed dues. Article 19 provides:

Introduction 

India's five underground nuclear explosions detonated on May 11-13, 1998, raise such international law questions as these: Is India prohibited by any applicable treaty or customary rule of international law from testing or possessing nuclear weapons? Is there any other source of international law that might prohibit India's testing or possessing nuclear weapons? If India may test and possess them, under what circumstances would it be lawful to use them? Do India's tests provide any other states, such as Pakistan, with legal justification to conduct their own nuclear tests? 

Before the end of President Clinton's term in office, Congress will debate in earnest China's application to join the World  Trade Organization (WTO). Rhetoric in Congress during President Jiang Zemin's recent state visit tells us this debate may be highly contentious. The recent congressional defeat of the President's request for fast-track authority raised awareness in the international trade community that close attention must be paid to laying groundwork for critical national decisions on trade policy. It is not too early to address the new "China question."