Questions Relating to the Competence of the Security Council
It has been said that international law is “more than any other law, a regulation of competencies.” 1 As such the question of competence has been a prominent one in any international organization. For example, more than one hundred questions were raised as to the competence of particular organs of the League of Nations during its life time,2 and it is not surprising that the United Nations has had to consider the same question on many occasions, especially in its early stage of existence, as it appears that it “is natural for institutions in their infancy to be faced with disputes in regard to their jurisdiction.”3 Indeed, the question of competence has been and is not only a major legal question,4 but also the most important question in the operations of the United Nations, in that all its actions emanate from either explicit or implicit recognition of its own competence. As early as 1950, a special committee of the American Society of International Law pointed out that “in many cases the Members concerned almost automatically challenged the competence of the United Nations in order to delay action or to channel the discussion away from the merits of the case. There are in consequence several hundreds of cases in which the competence of the Organization has been challenged.” 5 The prominence of questions relating to competence of the various organs of the United Nations and related agencies is also reflected in the advisory opinions given by the International Court of Justice. All but one 1 of the questions submitted to the Court for advisory opinion have touched upon the question of competence in one way or another.2
The Israeli-Syrian Crisis in the Light of the Arab-Israel Armistice System
The Palestine question has been before the United Nations since April 1947. In the four years which have since elapsed, the General Assembly and the Security Council have created no fewer than ten subsidiary organs to deal with various aspects of the question. Three of the bodies are still actively in existence. The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, set up by the General Assembly in December 1948, was directed to assist the parties “to achieve a final settlement of all questions outstanding between them.” The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, established under a General Assembly resolution of December 1949, was intended to shift the emphasis of United Nations-sponsored activities on behalf of the refugees of the Palestine war from relief to rehabilitation. Finally, there is the Security Council's Truce Supervision Organization.
A Preference for Forgetting: Some Reflections on Publishing Looking For Blackfellas' Point: An Australian History of Place
Blackfellas' Point lies on the Towamba River in south-eastern New South Wales. As the river descends rapidly from its source on the Monaro plains, it winds its way through state forest, national park and farming land. Around twenty-five kilometres before it reaches the sea, just south of Eden, it passes through Towamba, the small village in which Mark McKenna now owns eight acres of land. Mark's land looks across the river to 'Blackfellas' Point', once an Aboriginal camping ground and meeting place. Looking for Blackfellas' Point is a history that begins by looking across the river to the arc of bush that is 'Blackfellas' Point. From there, Mark McKenna's gaze pans out - from the history of one place he knows intimately, to the history of one region and, ultimately, to the history of Australia's quest for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Looking For Blackfellas' Point is a history for every Australian who is interested in the story of settler-Australia's relations with Indigenous people - what happened between us, how we learnt to forget and, finally, how we came to confront the truth about our past and build a movement for reconciliation.