Acta Universitatis Carolinae Iuridica (AUCI) is the main journal of the Faculty of Law of Charles University. It has been published since 1954 and is one of the traditional law journals with a theoretical focus.
As a general law journal, it publishes longer studies and shorter articles on any relevant issues in legal theory and international, European and national law. AUCI also publishes material relating to current legislative issues. AUCI is a peer-reviewed journal and accepts submissions from both Czech and international authors. Contributions by foreign authors are published in their original language – Slovak, English, German, French.
AUCI is a theoretical journal for questions of state and law. It is published by Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Law, through Karolinum Press. It is published four times a year, the dates of publication can be found here.
Articles published in AUCI undergo an independent peer review process, which is anonymous on both sides. Reviewers from the field give their opinion on the scientific quality of the paper and the suitability of publication in the journal. In the case of comments, the opinion is sent back to the author with the possibility of revising the text (see Guidelines for Authors – Per Review Process for more details).
The AUCI journal (ISSN 0323-0619) is registered in the Czech National Bibliography (kept by the National Library of the Czech Republic) and in the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (kept by the American Association of Law Libraries). AUCI has been assigned a periodical registration number MK E 18585.
In 2021 the journal AUCI was the first journal of the Faculty of Law of Charles University to be included in the prestigious international database Scopus. This Elsevier database is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature in the world. The editors of the journal expect from the inclusion in the elite Scopus database not only an increase in the readership of the journal, but also an increase in interest in the publication of papers by both Czech and foreign authors.
AUCI is an open journal and all its content is published both on the faculty website and on the Karolinum Press website. Access to it is free of charge. The homepage of AUCI is on the Karolinum Press website.
The AUCI journal uses the Creative Commons license: CC BY 4.0.
Long-term archiving of the digital content of the journal is provided by Portico.
AUC IURIDICA, Vol 71 No 3 (2025), 115–132
Vztah Komise pro mezinárodní právo a Šestého výboru Valného shromáždění OSN a jeho vliv na mezinárodní normotvorbu
[The Relationship Between the International Law Commission and the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly and Its Impact on International Law-Making]
Marek Zukal
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/23366478.2025.497
published online: 29. 08. 2025
abstract
The article analyses the relationship between the International Law Commission and the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly, applying the economic concept of the principal-agent problem. It shows that, on the one hand, States do not have all the information about the Commission’s activities, and on the other hand, they are not (unlike in the past) interested in directing the Commission and following up effectively on its products. Information asymmetry and States’ lack of interest in the Commission’s activities allow it to increase its influence on the development of the content of rules of international law. To do so, the Commission uses various tools – from the choice of the subject of its work (topic), the choice of the form of its product to the formulation of a recommendation. The products of the Commission’s work not considered and accepted by States are then often applied by international courts and tribunals. This may lead to the creation of rules of international law independently of the will of States, i.e., in a heteronomous way.
keywords: progressive development of international law; codification of international law; law-making; heteronomy; International Law Commission; Sixth Committee of the General Assembly
references (42)
1. About the Commission: Organization, programme and methods of work. In: International Law Commission [online]. [cit. 2024-01-17]. Dostupné na: https://legal.un.org/ilc/programme.shtml#a2.
2. ALABRUNE, F. Presentation by François Alabrune. In: United Nations (ed.). Seventy Years of the International Law Commission: Drawing a Balance for the Future. Leiden: Brill, 2020, s. 51-56. CrossRef
3. ANDERSON, M. R. - BOYLE, A. E. - VAUGHAN LOWE, A. - WICKREMASINGHE, CH. (eds.). The International Law Commission and the Future of International Law. London: British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 1998.
4. BERMAN, F. The ILC within the UN's Legal Framework: Its Relationship with the Sixth Committee. In: ZIMMERMANN, A. - DELBRÜCK, J. - GIEGERICH, T. (eds.). German Yearbook of International Law. Vol. 49. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2006, s. 107-127.
5. BORDIN, F. L. Reflections of Customary International Law: The Authority of Codification Conventions and ILC Draft Articles in International Law. The International and Comparative Law Quarterly. 2014, Vol. LXIII, No. 3, s. 535-567. CrossRef
6. BOYLE, A. - CHINKIN, CH. The Making of International Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. CrossRef
7. CAMARA, J. S. The International Law Commission: Discourse in Method. In: FONTEYENE, J.-P. L - GREIG, D. W. International Law at the Time of its Codification: Essays in Honour of Roberto Ago. Milano: Guiffrè, 1987.
8. CARON, D. B. The ILC Articles on State Responsibility: The Paradoxical Relationship Between Form and Authority. In: SSRN [online]. 2022 [cit. 2023-12-13]. UC Berkeley Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series. 2002 [cit. 2024-01-17]. Dostupné na: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=339540.
9. COGAN, J. K. The Changing Form of the International Law Commision's Work. In: VIRZO, R. - INGRAVALLO, I. (eds.). Evolutions in the Law of International Organizations. Leiden, Boston: Brill Nijhoff, 2015.
10. ČEPELKA, Č. - ŠTURMA, P. - BÍLKOVÁ, V. Kodifikace a rozvoj mezinárodního práva: kodifikace mezinárodního práva, právo mezinárodních smluv, právo mezinárodní odpovědnosti. Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Právnická fakulta, 2008.
11. DAVID, V. - SLADKÝ, P. Mezinárodní právo veřejné s kazuistikou. 3. vyd. Praha: Leges, 2022.
12. Draft principles on protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts, with commentaries [online]. 2022, odst. 3 [cit. 2024-01-17]. Dostupné na: https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/commentaries/8_7_2022.pdf.
13. DUGARD, J. How Effective Is the International Law Commission in the Development of International Law? A Critique of the International Law Commission on the Occasion of its Fiftieth Anniversary. In: BOTHA, N. - WIECHERS, M. (eds.). South African Yearbook of International Law / Suid-Afrikaanse Jaarboek vir Volkereg. Pretoria: VerLoren van Themaat Centre, 1998, s. 34-44.
14. EL BARADEI, M. - FRANCK, T. M. - TRACHTENBERG, R. The International Law Commission: The need for a New Direction: Policy and Efficacy Studies. New York: United Nations Institute for Training and Research, 1981.
15. Enlargement of the International Law Commission: amendments to articles 2 and 9 of the Statute of the Commission [online]. 1981 [cit. 2024-01-17]. Dostupné na: https://documents.un.org/doc/resolution/gen/nr0/406/65/pdf/nr040665.pdf.
16. ESCOBAR-HERNÁNDEZ, C. Presentation by Concepción Escobar-Hernández. In: United Nations (ed.). Seventy Years of the International Law Commission: Drawing a Balance for the Future. Leiden: Brill, s. 83-90.
17. HASSOUNA, H. A. Presentation by Hussein A. Hassouna. In: United Nations (ed.). Seventy Years of the International Law Commission: Drawing a Balance for the Future. Leiden: Brill, s. 96-103.
18. HOLMAN, R. Ekonomie. 5. vydání. Praha: C. H. Beck, 2011.
19. IRAN-UNITED STATES CLAIMS TRIBUNAL [online]. [cit. 2024-01-17]. Dostupné na: https://iusct.com/main-search/.
20. JANSEN, N. The Making of Legal Autority: Non-legislative Codifications in Historical and Comparative Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. CrossRef
21. KOSKENNIEMI, M. The Politics of International Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2011.
22. MCCAFFREY, S. Is Codification in Decline? Hastings International and Comparative Law Review. 1997, Vol. XX, No. 3, s. 639-659.
23. MEYER, T. - HELFER, L. R. The Evolution of Codification: A Principle-Agent Theory of the International Law Commission's Influence. In: BRADLEY, C. A. (ed.). Custom's Future: International Law in a Changing World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, s. 305-331. CrossRef
24. MURPHY, S. D. Codification, Progressive Development, or Scholarly Analysis? The Art of Packaging the ILC's Work Product. In: RAGAZZI, M. (ed.). The Responsibility of International Organisations: Essays in Memory of Sir Ian Brownlie. Leiden: Brill, 2013, s. 29-40. CrossRef
25. MURPHY, S. D. Concluding remarks by Sean D. Murphy In: United Nations (ed.). Seventy Years of the International Law Commission: Drawing a Balance for the Future. Leiden: Brill, 2020, s. 277-283. CrossRef
26. PAUWELYN, J. - WESSEL, R. A. - WOUTERS, J. When Structures Become Shackles: Stagnation and Dynamics in International Lawmaking. The European Journal of International Law. 2014, Vol. XXV, č. 3, s. 733-763. CrossRef
27. PETRIČ, E. Presentation by Ernest Petrič. In: United Nations (ed.). Seventy Years of the International Law Commission: Drawing a Balance for the Future. Leiden: Brill, 2020, s. 66-74. CrossRef
28. PRONTO, A. Codification and Progressive Development in Contemporary International Law-Making: Locating the Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters. In: BARTOLINI, G. (ed.). Yearbook of International Disaster Law. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2019, s. 148-178. CrossRef
29. PRONTO, A. Some Thoughts on the Making of International Law. The European Journal of International Law. 2008, Vol. XIX, No. 3, s. 601-616. CrossRef
30. PRONTO, A. Understanding the Hard/Soft Distinction in International Law. Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. 2015, Vol. XLVIII, No. 4, s. 941-956.
31. Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its seventy-third and seventy-fourth sessions: Statement by Slovenia [online]. 2023 [cit. 2024-01-17]. Dostupné na: https://www.un.org/en/ga/sixth/78/pdfs/statements/ilc/31mtg_slovenia_3.pdf.
32. Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its seventy-fifth session: Statement by Slovenia [online]. 2024 [cit. 2024-01-17]. Dostupné na: https://www.un.org/en/ga/sixth/79/pdfs/statements/ilc/28mtg_slovenia_3.pdf.
33. Resolution ICC-ASP/18/Res.4 [online]. 2019 [cit. 2024-01-17]. Dostupné na: https://asp.icc-cpi.int/sites/asp/files/asp_docs/ASP18/ICC-ASP-18-Res4-ENG.pdf.
34. Rozsudek Evropského soudu pro lidská práva ve věci Behrami and Behrami v. France and Saramati v. France, Germany and Norway (Applications No. 71412/01 and 78166/01) ze dne 2. května 2007. In: HUDOC: European Court of Human Rights [online]. [cit. 2024-01-17]. Dostupné na: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#{%22appno%22:[%2271412/01%22],%22itemid%22:[%22001-80830%22]}.
35. SENDER, O. Two Views of the International Law Commission: A Conversation with Professor Alain Pellet and Sir Michael Wood. In: SCHERR, K. M. - DE WET, E. (eds.). Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 2025, s. 16-41. CrossRef
36. SHAW, M. N. International Law. 7th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
37. Survey of International Law in Relation to the Work of Codification of the International Law Commission: Preparatory work within the purview of article 18, paragraph 1, of the International Law Commission - Memorandum submitted by the Secretary-General. Document A/CN.4/1/Rev.1 [online]. 1949, odst. 21 [cit. 2024-01-17]. Dostupné na: https://legal.un.org/ilc/documentation/english/a_cn4_1_rev1.pdf.
38. ŠTURMA, P. Concluding remarks by Pavel Šturma. In: United Nations (ed.). Seventy Years of the International Law Commission: Drawing a Balance for the Future. Leiden: Brill, 2020, s. 153-167.
39. TOMUSCHAT, CH. The International Law Commission - An Outdated Institution? In: ZIMMERMANN, A. - DELBRÜCK, J. - GIEGERICH, T. (eds.). German Yearbook of International Law. Vol. 49. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2006, s. 77-105.
40. VÁLEK, P. The Activities of the Sixth Committee During the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly: Business as Usual? Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law. 2012, Vol. III, s. 293-319.
41. WOOD, M. The General Assembly and the International Law Commission: What Happens to the Commission's Work and Why?: Festschrift in Honour of Gerhard Hafner. In: BUFFARD, I. - CRAWFORD, J. - PELLET, A. - WITTICH, S. (eds.). International Law between Universalism and Fragmentation. Leiden: Brill, 2008, s. 373-388. CrossRef
42. ZAGAYNOV, E. Presentation by Evgeny Zagaynov. In: United Nations (ed.). Seventy Years of the International Law Commission: Drawing a Balance for the Future. Leiden: Brill, 2020, s. 79-82. CrossRef
Vztah Komise pro mezinárodní právo a Šestého výboru Valného shromáždění OSN a jeho vliv na mezinárodní normotvorbu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
230 x 157 mm
periodicity: 4 x per year
print price: 65 czk
ISSN: 0323-0619
E-ISSN: 2336-6478
