The British Year Book is an indispensable tool for the public international lawyer and this latest edition once again blends academic analysis and surveys of practice in generous measures. Some 501 pages are devoted to seven full length articles and one (relatively) shorter note which span a wide range of subject areas and all share the analytical rigour for which the Year Book is noted. The remaining 350 or so pages cover developments and State practice.

As has become traditional, the volume opens with the latest instalment of Hugh Thirlway’s survey of the law and procedure of the International Court of Justice from 1960-1989. As ever, this is thought provoking and repays careful reading. However, a fairly high threshold of prior knowledge is necessary to make much headway (but this will doubtless be possessed by those who consult it). Moreover, the subject-matter—the work of the court in relation to international organizations in general, and then, in detail, the United Nations and other international organizations—would have benefited from more consideration being given to the Lockerbie and Bosnia cases. Of course, these fall outside the time period under examination, but the passing references to the questions raised by these cases does contribute to the feeling that the article is of more historic than contemporary interest.

Perhaps this feeling is heightened by Christine Gray’s article entitled “Bosnia and Herzegovina: Civil War or Inter-State Conflict? Characterization and Consequences”. This provides an excellent narrative account of the Yugoslav crisis and points out the different approaches taken to the characterization of the conflict by the UN Organs. Against this background, Gray goes on to consider a number of the key legal issues which arose, including the issue of the right of Bosnia and Herzegovina to self defence and the interpretation and validity of the UN arms embargo. This rather accentuates the relative lack of consideration given to these materials by Thirlway. It would be a pity to deprive a reader of the pleasure in following the unfolding of Gray’s arguments but, suffice to say, she leans towards the view that the conflict was a civil war and, as such, there was no ground to claim that the UN arms embargo violated UN. Art. 51.

Between these contributions stands an informative and authoritative examination of the current scope of the principle of uti possidetis juris by Malcolm Shaw. He emphasizes the role of uti possidetis in confirming the ordering of international law around territorial sovereignty, as opposed to competing concepts such as human rights, self-determination and ethnicity and considers its role in relation to maritime boundaries, as well as effectivities and the limits of the doctrine. Eastern European practice is integrated into a consideration of its status as customary international law.

In similar fashion, a number of articles take recent developments as the starting point for a more general consideration of important themes. Peter Davis and Chatherine Redgwell provide a very helpful account of the development of international concern for the problem of “The International Legal Regulation of Straddling Fish Stocks”. An examination of the background to the current