3 Multilateral Law-Making: Diplomatic Processes

In this chapter we consider the main multilateral diplomatic processes through which most modern international law-making takes place. These include not only intergovernmental organisations such as the United Nations, but also commissions, conferences or meetings of the parties to multilateral treaties (COPs/MOPs), and ad hoc negotiating conferences, of which the 3rd UN Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) and the 1998 Rome Conference to adopt the Statute of the International Criminal Court are the leading examples in modern times. In the century and a...