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Boister, Neil; Scott, Karen --- "Preface" [2008] NZYbkIntLaw 16; (2008) 6 New Zealand Yearbook of International Law v

Last Updated: 7 February 2019

PREFACE

The Editorial Board is pleased to publish this sixth volume of the New Zealand Yearbook of International Law covering the year 2008.
This volume begins with two special sections. The first, appropriately, is a selection of papers from a colloquium on the Antarctic titled: Responding to Contemporary Challenges and Threats to Antarctic Security: Legal and Policy Perspectives. The Colloquium was organised by Professor Don Rothwell, ANU, Canberra and Karen Scott, University of Canterbury and hosted by the School of Law and Gateway Antarctica in July 2009. The Colloquium organisers would like to acknowledge the financial support for this event provided by a number of organisations: the New Zealand Law Foundation; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT); Maritime New Zealand; Antarctica New Zealand; School of Law, University of Canterbury, Gateway Antarctica and; the International Law Group. Participants were experts in Antarctic law and policy matters and drawn from New Zealand, Australia, the UK, the US and India. 2009 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty and an assessment of the modern threats to the security of the Antarctic as a region and to the Antarctic regime itself, is thus timely. Participants presented papers on a diverse range of security-focused issues including climate change and the Antarctic Treaty system, the status of the Antarctic continental shelf, whaling in the Southern Ocean and Antarctic military and law enforcement operations. Participants benefited from pertinent contributions made by representatives from government agencies present at the Colloquium including the MFAT, Maritime New Zealand, the Royal New Zealand Navy and Antarctica New Zealand. This Colloquium represents the first stage in a longer-term project. The participants are due to meet in Canberra in 2010 for a second Colloquium and all papers will be ultimately reproduced in an edited collection. The papers collected here examine the nature of security in the Antarctic (D. Rothwell and H. Nasu) and current challenges to the Antarctic Treaty system as a regime (C. Joyner). The application of global principles to the Antarctic and their implications for regime integrity is explored by Duncan French and no symposium on Antarctic security would be complete without an examination of the role of territory within the region, which is provided here by Alan Hemmings. The final two papers focus on security and the Southern Ocean and explore issues connected to maritime security and vessel safety (J. Jabour) and marine scientific research (K. Scott).
The second special section is devoted to a selection of papers from a colloquium on the crime of aggression held in the School of Law, University of Canterbury, in July 2009. The event was held in anticipation of the increased focus on the crime in the run up to the Review Conference of the Rome Statute, to be held in Kampala in 2010. The aim of the day-long event was twofold: to examine the development in international law of a definition of the crime of aggression for incorporation into the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (to which New Zealand is a party); and to examine the domestic application of the crime of aggression in New Zealand law. The event was opened by New Zealand’s Attorney General Chris Finlayson. The papers collected here include the following with a broader international focus: Neil Boister’s focus on the application of the crime by New Zealand in the Tokyo Trial in 1946-8, James Potter’s paper on the threshold of the proposed definition of the crime of aggression and Netta Goussac’s discussion of territoriality and the aggression under ICC. The papers focussing on the domestic application of the crime include Sascha Mueller’s paper on the domestic crime of aggression in German law and Kennedy Graham’s on the evolution of his Bill for the application of the crime of aggression in New Zealand law.
The general articles also cover these two topics. We pursue the international criminal law theme with an article by Roger Clark in which he examines the elements of crimes in early confirmation decisions of pre-trial chambers of the ICC and Erica Leaney in which she examines the threats to fair trial rights offered by assignment of counsel to indigent accused in the ICTR. We revert to Antarctic matters with Alan D. Hemmings and Tim Stephens piece on the implications of sub-Antarctic continental shelf claims which extend into the Antarctic Treaty Area.
The ‘Year–in-Review’ of New Zealand state practice during the calendar year 2008 in selected areas of international law pursues the focus of the Yearbook on New Zealand’s role in contemporary international law. The topics selected include: international human rights law; indigenous peoples rights under international law; international humanitarian law; international criminal law; international environmental law; law of the sea and fisheries; the Antarctic Treaty System; international economic law; nuclear weapons, non-proliferation and international security. Each of the commentators provides a short overview of, and brief comment on, relevant New Zealand state practice as well as a discussion of developments within these areas of interest to New Zealand.
The dedicated section on the South Pacific includes a piece by Tony Angelo on the Pacific Islands Forum and one by Brenda Heather-Latu on developments around the South Pacific. We are very grateful to Brenda for stepping into the late Bob Hughes’ role in this regard.
Mark Gobbi submitted his report on Treaty Action and Implementation some time ago; our apologies for taking so long in getting it into print!
Chris Gallavin, a member of our Editorial Board, has once again, arranged the book reviews in this volume.
We wish to thank again those academics, practitioners and government officials throughout New Zealand that have supported the establishment and continued development of this publication. The Yearbook exists to serve the interests of the community with an interest in international law, both in New Zealand, and globally. A special welcome must be extended to our new student editor, Josie Toop, and our new copy editor, Heather Couch, and we must thank Anna Homan for her exacting performance of these functions in the last three volumes.

Neil Boister Karen Scott
General Editor Associate Editor
December 2009