440 Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (1914– )Th e Re nais sance of International Law
Around 1980, there was something of a change of atmosphere in world af-
fairs that led to a palpable revival of international law activity, giving to in-
ternational law a higher profi le in world aff airs than it had enjoyed since the
immediate postwar years aft er 1945. Th e reasons for this change are not
easily discerned. Certainly it had nothing to do with any impending end to
the Cold War. If anything, relations between the two major powers turned
worse at about that time, largely because of the Soviet presence in Af ghan i-
stan. Th e fi rst sign of this renewed activity was a sharp increase in business
at the World Court— sometimes in matters in which po liti cal tempers ran
very hot.
Th e ending of the Cold War in 1989– 91 contributed to this trend, though
to some extent in a highly unforeseen manner. Th e state of Yugo slavia broke
into fragments in a chaotic and violent manner, accompanied by the worst
atrocities that Eu rope had witnessed since the Second World War. Th e out-
rage that arose then led to the creation of the fi rst international criminal
court since the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals of the 1940s. Progress and
atrocity were marching in wary partnership.Th e Revival of the World Court
In 2012, the president of the World Court (Peter Tomka, from Slovakia)
pointed out that, in the period since 1990, the Court’s caseload was approxi-
mately double what it had been in the de cades prior to that. In fact, the up-
turn in judicial business had begun rather earlier, for reasons that remain
somewhat unclear. One factor was a set of developments in the area of the
law of the sea. By the 1970s, there was a consensus that the four conventions
concluded in 1958 (on the basis of work by the International Law Commis-
sion) were already outmoded. Governments were increasingly pressing for
signifi cant expansions in their off shore jurisdiction, most notably in two
respects: monopolies over fi shing rights for large distances off their coasts,
and extensions of own ership of continental shelves (or seabed areas). To deal
with these issues, and a host of others, a conference on the law of the sea was
convened in 1973. Aft er a great deal of wrangling, a new convention on the
subject was concluded in 1982, to replace the four earlier ones. Although