File No. 1157

This book provides the first detailed history of the Constitution's treaty supremacy rule. It describes a process of invisible constitutional change. The treaty supremacy rule was a bedrock principle of constitutional law for more than 150 years. It provided that treaties are supreme over state law and that courts have a constitutional duty to apply treaties that conflict with state laws. The rule ensured that state governments did not violate U.S. treaty obligations without authorization from the federal political branches. In 1945, the United States ratified the UN Charter, which obligates nations to promote human rights “for all without distinction as to race.” In 1950, a California court applied the Charter’s human rights provisions along with the traditional supremacy rule to invalidate a state law that discriminated against Japanese nationals. The implications were shocking: the decision implied that the United States had abrogated Jim Crow laws throughout the South by ratifying the UN Charter. Conservatives reacted by lobbying for a constitutional amendment, known as the Bricker Amendment, to abolish the treaty supremacy rule. The amendment never passed, but Bricker's supporters achieved their goals through de facto constitutional change. Before 1945, the treaty supremacy rule was a mandatory constitutional rule that applied to all treaties. The de facto Bricker Amendment converted the rule into an optional rule that applies only to “self-executing” treaties. Under the modern rule, state governments are allowed to violate national treaty obligations — including international human rights obligations — that are embodied in “non-self-executing” treaties.

"The Palestine Yearbook of International Law" is a well-established yearbook, which was previously published by the Al-Shaybani Society of International Law. Kluwer Law International will be publishing the "Yearbook" from the eighth volume onwards and will also manage the distribution of the previous seven volumes. "The Palestine Yearbook of" "International Law" has become widely respected as a prime reference source of legal material relating to Palestinian issues and is an important forum for the international legal community, particularly for legal practitioners, researchers and scholars. In addition to leading articles on topical problems and issues, it contains key legislation, court decisions and other relevant legal material translated from the original Arabic or Hebrew into English.

Some of Australia's most highly regarded legal minds provide a timely examination of both the formation of the country's legal and constitutional foundations and the challenges which confront this framework as it continues to evolve.

This well-established and widely-respected "Yearbook," now in its 10th volume, is a primary source of information on significant and topical legal issues relating to the Palestinian territories. It provides, in a single annual volume, not only leading articles on topics of major interest to the international legal community, but also key legislation, court decisions, legal cases, treaties, resolutions, special reports, and other relevant legal material translated from the original Arabic or Hebrew into English. The 10th volume of the "Palestine Yearbook of International Law" contains the following features: - leading articles on the legal issues relating to Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, and on the peaceful settlement of disputes in Africa and its relevance to the Palestinian/Israeli peace process, - law reports, including important judicial decisions, legislation and court records, - a record of significant human rights reports, including UN Resolutions and the European Union's Statement on the Peace Process, - special reports on the Wye River Memorandum and on the Covenant of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, - a selection of recent book reviews, - a detailed bibliography of books, monographs and articles, - a comprehensive index. This new volume, as with its predecessors, will be an invaluable source of reference and record on the complex legal issues relating to the Palestinian territories, and will be of prime interest to legal practitioners, researchers, scholars and anyone involved in law, politics, human rights or international relations who has an interest in this region.