This title is a comprehensive treatment of the development of international human rights law, international criminal law and international immunities, and asks whether states and their officials can shield themselves from foreign jurisdiction by invoking international immunity rules when human rights issues are involved.

The reports collected in this book were prepared at the initiative and under the auspices of the Project on International Procedure of the School of Law of Columbia University within the framework of its co-operation with the Commission on International Rules of Judicial Procedure, a body created by Act of Congress of September 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1743. The Commission is charged with studying domestic and foreign procedures of international co-operation in litigation with a view to suggesting improvements. Since June 1960, the Project has assisted the Commission in carrying out this statutorily assigned task. Work on the reports here presented was begun in the fall of 1960. The Project invoked the assistance of an active practitioner in each of the foreign countries se1ected and submitted to hirn an extensive questionnaire summarizing American procedures and posing detailed quest ions about foreign practices. The elaborate answers to these questionnaires provided the information on which the American co authors relied in drafting the English versions of the reports. By having proceeded in this fashion, the Project hopes to have prepared reports that reflect the knowledge and experience of the foreign practitioners and at the same time are drafted in terms intelligible to common law lawyers. Furthermore, to ensure that the reports would take due account of official views, in almost all instances, final drafts of the reports were submitted for comments and suggestions to appropriate foreign public officials.

Based on an analysis of the diplomatic practice of States, and decisions by national and international courts, this book explores the two central questions of the recognition of governments. These are namely: what are the meanings of the term 'recognition' and its variants in internationallaw; and what is the effect of recognition on the legal status of foreign authorities, and in particular of authorities in exile recognized as governments. The book is comprehensive in its analysis of the issues, and covers material which is of significant historical interest, as well as highlytopical material such as recent developments in Angola, Kuwait and Haiti. Thus Talmon's book will hold great appeal for international law scholars and practitioners alike. It may also be of interest to diplomats and civil servants working in organizations such as the United Nations.

The Academy is a prestigious international institution for the study and teaching of Public and Private International Law and related subjects. The work of the Hague Academy receives the support and recognition of the UN. Its purpose is to encourage a thorough and impartial examination of the problems arising from international relations in the field of law. The courses deal with the theoretical and practical aspects of the subject, including legislation and case law. All courses at the Academy are, in principle, published in the language in which they were delivered in the "Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law .