New Trends in International Lawmaking - International 'Legislation' in the Public Interest

New threat scenarios include global environmental hazards, poverty generated mass migrations, and international terrorism which in view of the still not satisfactorily solved problem of containing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has taken on a new dimension. Although undeniably the task of meeting these challenges is an instrinsically political one, there can be no serious doubt that respective political steps to cope with these global threats to the well-being of humankind cannot be effectively taken without an adequate and enforceable legal framework. It is quite evident that such international or global legal framework cannot be designed on the basis of a traditional sovereignity-oriented international law. One can observe that international law has begun to react to the new environment in which it is to function more effectively. Modifications of the modes of creating adequate legal norms and efforts to broaden the scope of relevant international legal norms as well as to strengthen their enforceability vis-à-vis third states as in the case of the now well recognized norms with erga omnes effect are sure indications of the changing nature of international law in an era of global hazards. The 1996 International Law Symposium »The New Trends in International Lawmaking - International 'Legislation' in the Public Interest« brought together 28 leading scholars from the United States and Europe with a view to probe into these recent developments in the international legal order.