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The use of third-party countermeasures is an increasingly common phenomenon in international relations, yet their legal position remains uncertain. Providing the first systematic and comprehensive study of this key concept in international law, Martin Dawidowicz explores the position of third-party countermeasures and their safeguards regime based on the development of ideas on countermeasures in the UN International Law Commission and a thorough examination of state practice. The book clarifies the position of third-party countermeasures in international law, and in doing so challenges some widely held assumptions about the likely impact of a regime of third-party countermeasures on international relations. It will be of interest to international law and relations scholars and students, diplomats, policy makers, international civil servants and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the field of human rights.

This article examines the reasoning and findings of the International Court of Justice in its judgment in Costa Rica v. Nicaragua on issues relating to the effect of the passage of time on the interpretation of treaties. In arriving at the proper interpretation of the disputed phrase 'for purposes of commerce' in a Treaty of Limits between the parties, which entered into force in 1858, the ICJ followed a number of interpretative steps based on Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), which led the Court to conclude that the meaning of this phrase must be presumed to have evolved over time. The means and methods of interpretation employed by the ICJ to determine the effect of the passage of time on treaties are examined. More specifically, the question is raised whether the ICJ's approach to determining the evolutionary character of a treaty provision, based on an interpretative presumption, may not be considered unsatisfactory insofar as it does not appear to take full account of the actual common intention of the parties -the main task of interpretation.

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