While literal interpretation is part of each contribution to the commentary and the preparatory works are regularly mentioned, the authors try to carve out the object and purpose of each provision and to determine whether the respective norms constitute customary international law. 4 According to the editors, their work aims to display the law as it presently stands and applies the rules of treaty interpretation contained in the VCLT as a method and structure (at vii). It also includes an article by article commentary on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or between International Organizations. With two volumes of over 2,000 pages written by over 80 authors, it is the longest of the three commentaries under review. In 2006, Oliver Corten and Pierre Klein published the first scholarly commentary on the VCLT the second edition was published in 2011 in English. The review essay will conclude with a reflection on the history, presence, and future of commentaries in international law. This comparison reveals the way in which commentaries as a genre present and deal with the law and contentious issues. Secondly, the content of the commentaries will be compared with each other with regard to three aspects which have attracted attention in recent years: the status and content of jus cogens norms, the ascertainment of the object and purpose of treaties, and the grounds of invalidity, termination, and suspension. How do these commentaries deal with the law of treaties and how do commentaries more generally work in the realm of the law of nations? What is the significance of this genre of international law literature and how is it used by scholars? To answer these questions, the three commentaries under review will first be introduced, focussing on their structure, authors, and peculiarities. These commentaries add to an extensive literature generally on the law of treaties, 2 as well as on particular aspects of it. Given the increase in the use of commentaries as well as their evolution in the age of digitization, the present review will reflect on these developments in international legal scholarship with a focus on three recent commentaries on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). The genres of legal scholarship evolve over time abreast of technological developments. The scholarly form influences the way international legal scholarship looks at the law, the questions it asks, and the answers it gives. Each genre has specific features structuring and presenting the law. The use of scholarly genres is a characteristic feature of the culture of the legal and scientific community. Commentaries form one genre of international legal scholarship, with others being essays, book reviews, treatises, and monographs. Each chapter is normally dedicated to the discussion of one legal provision. ![]() ![]() 1 Commentaries are books that discuss statutes in national law or treaties in international law article by article in a structured manner. The number of commentaries in the field of international law has risen significantly. Those are accessibility, layout, referencing, inclusion of other media, and the possibility of enhanced discourse within the commentary. ![]() The review concludes by discussing the possible changes in this scholarly genre. Digitization will seriously impact on all fields of scholarly publishing. Today, commentaries fulfil several functions in international legal discourse, the most important of which is that they structure this discourse. ![]() They gained importance for international legal scholarship when international law entered the process of codification. Their roots lie in the schools working on Roman law in the Middle Ages. So the review discusses their function in the past, in the present, and in their possible future. As a scholarly genre, commentaries form part of the legal culture of legal systems. They are compared with regard to the ways in which they deal with three pertinent issues in the law of treaties: the ascertainment of jus cogens norms, the notion of object and purpose and grounds of invalidity, termination, and suspension. To reflect upon this trend in international legal scholarship, three commentaries on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties are reviewed. Commentaries on international law abound and proliferate.
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