The movement on behalf of a new international economic order emerged in the early 1970’s and achieved an early, signal success with three great ventures in international lawmaking by the United Nations General Assembly in 1974 and 1975. These were the Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, the Programme of Action on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, and the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States. All three acts were adopted in the form of General Assembly resolutions, the first two by consensus and without formal vote, at the Sixth Special Session of the General Assembly. The Resolution on the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, being pushed to a vote at the succeeding regular Annual Session, was adopted by 120 to 6, with 10 abstentions (with the United States, Great Britain, and West Germany among the negative votes, and France, Italy, Japan, and Canada among the abstentions).

Here are three different national collections of essays, French, Dutch, and American, published almost at the same time and organized around the same subject — the historical jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the main trends in its contemporary evolution. The French volume is the product of the annual meeting of the Société française pour le droit international, held in Lyon in May 1986 under the distinguished presidency of Suzanne Bastid. These French annual meetings are devoted to a colloquium organized around a single theme, different each year; and the published collections of papers and conference discussions — sixteen so far, including the present volume — have, by now, acquired authoritative status in scientific and legal terms. The American volume was specially commissioned by the American Society of International Law in the aftermath of the International Court of Justice's judgment, rendered by 12 to 3 votes on the main substantive issues and pronounced against the United States, in Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America], Merits, [ICJ Reports, 1986, p. 14]. It is thus, both in stated design (see the valuable introduction by Professor Damrosch, at xvii-xxviii), and also in its practical result, a form of ad hoc U.S. academic-legal response to the Nicaragua rulings.