Encyclopedia of Public International Law, 9: International Relations and Legal Cooperation in General, Diplomacy, and Consular Relations focuses on international relations and legal cooperation in general, including diplomacy and consular relations. The publication first offers information on the international aspects of administrative law, the Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee, Atlantic Charter (1941), Bandung Conference (1955), and the international regulation on broadcasting. The text also examines the international protection of children, coded communications, international conferences and congresses, consular jurisdiction, treaties, and relations, and international criminal law. Discussions focus on bilateral consular agreements, establishment of consular relations, privileges and immunities, legal situation, historical evolution of legal rules, and protection for children in special situations. The manuscript ponders on wildlife protection, international regulation on the use of water, waste disposal, unjust enrichment, transfrontier pollution, tourism, terrorism, and international regulation on telecommunications. Topics include principles governing international telecommunication, space telecommunications, special legal problem on terrorism, touristic relations between states, historical evolution of transfrontier pollution, international consequences of water use, and global, regional, and bilateral treatises on wildlife protection. The publication is a vital source of data for researchers interested in international relations and legal cooperation in general, as well as diplomacy and consular relations.

The unification of Private International Law is a goal to which all the contributors to this impressive volume have committed themselves, and one which seems increasingly to attract the attention of legal practitioners, researchers, writers and legislators. The essays give a unique overview of the current state of the law with respect to those areas which have been unified, or which are susceptible to unification. Insights are given into national as well as international practice, and theoretical aspects have not been neglected.

In the last few years European Family Law has undergone considerable changes. Although in the past law reform was slow, since 1969 the impetus for reform has gathered momentum. It is no exaggeration to say that the changes that have occurred in Europe in the last six or seven years have radically altered the very concept of the family in Europe. As a distinguished scholar and former editor of the Family Law volume of the International Encyclopaedia of Com parative Law, Professor Max Rheinstein, has put it: 'These transformations are not fully completed anywhere. They have gone farthest in the countries of highest industrialization and in those of socialist rule. But they have set in wherever industrialization has obtained a foothold. The degree of 'modernization' offamily law may indeed be used as an index of a society's degree of Westernization. 'l Yet, such is the force of traditional patterns of thought that, although we are aware of distinct changes in various legal systems, the underlying and implied assumption is that family law can still move within the traditional framework. This is not surprising for, until comparatively recently at least family law was not thought of as a suitable subject of unification. It was claimed that there is a peculiar and distinct element which derives from the mores and innermost beliefs of each people, from a sort of family Volksgeist that renders impossible the approximation or unification of family law.

With articles by Maarit Jänterä-Jareborg, Petar Sarcevic, Hans Ulrich Jessurun d'Oliveira, Paul Volken, national reports from Venezuela, Switzerland, China, Hungaria and Germany and news from The Hague as well as texts, materials and recent developments.

The new edition of this collection is published in november 2003, contains the Conventions adopted by the Seventh, Eight, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Foutteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Sessions (1951, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1993, 1996 and 2002), as well as by the Extraordinary Sessions of 1966 and 1985, and by the Special Commission of a diplomatic character on the protection of adults (1999): 35 Conventions, texts in French and in English, apart from the first 9 Conventions, wich were signed in French only.

Private Law in the International Arena analyzes a wide variety of effects that cross-border activities have on the operation of private law, ranging from corporate and insolvency law to labor law, property law, the law of obligations, family law, European law and lex mercatoria. Civil procedure aspects, in national courts and arbitration proceedings, are also explored. This book provides a unique source of insights into the problems encountered and their possible solutions. All contributions have been written in honor of an eminent Private International Law scholar, Prof. Dr Kurt Siehr.