A new international forum has emerged in the last decade, with the function of reviewing the implementation of certain arms control agreements. Four agreements, negotiated between 1968 and 1978, provide for the convening of periodic conferences of states parties “to review the operation” of the treaty, including an examination of whether the purposes of the preambles and the provisions of the treaties are being realized. These conferences are completely divorced from the procedures for amendment of the treaties. Instead, they are concerned with the implementation and interpretation of the agreements. Conferences to revise multilateral agreements are rare events probably because of the natural concern that reopening the text of a treaty may cause the entire agreement to unravel. In contrast, conferences to review the operation of treaties have become a common part of the diplomatic environment. They constitute a new type of enforcement mechanism for international law, though their activities have virtually been ignored in the literature. This neglect may be due to the fact that while the agreements calling for review conferences date from the 1970s, most such conferences have only met in the 1980s.

AIDS is truly an international phenomenon, with cases now reported on every continent. To combat the AIDS epidemic, the nations of the world may be reverting to a pattern of quarantine and restrictions on international travel. For example, on April 23, 1986, the Federal Register gave notice of a rule proposed by the Centers for Disease Control of the United States Public Health Service that, if enacted, will add AIDS to the list of seven diseases that provide grounds for exclusion of aliens. This action would allow the U.S. Department of State to deny visas and the Immigration and Naturalization Service to deny admission to aliens subject to medical examination (generally immigrants and refugees) who are found to have AIDS. Although seemingly innocuous, the proposed regulation was initially seen by gay rights groups as an instrument that could potentially be used to harass homosexuals and other high-risk groups seeking entry to the United States. The proposed regulation also contrasts with the U.S. Public Health Service’s domestic strategy for coping with AIDS, which emphasizes education rather than quarantine as the principal means of controlling the disease.

The Department of State has revived its former practice of constituting an Advisory Committee on International Law. Appointed by the Legal Adviser, Abraham D. Sofaer, the committee is intended to provide the Department with a means of obtaining the advice and views of the United States legal profession on questions of public international law.