Volume 27 of the Asian Yearbook of International Law begins with a special article on the late MCW Pinto, one of the founders of the Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA), followed by other articles and legal materials including a listing of the participation of Asian states in multilateral treaties and a description of the state practice of Asian states in the field of international law; along with a literature section featuring a book review and a bibliographic survey of materials dealing with international law in Asia; and finally, a summary of the activities undertaken by DILA in the 2021.
I Articles
Volume 27 of the Yearbook is dedicated to the late MCW Pinto who passed away on 21 July 2022. Ambassador Pinto, along with Ko Swan Sik and JJG Syatauw, founded DILA in December 1989. The following biographical sketch of Ambassador Pinto was published in Volume 25 (2019) of the Asian Yearbook of International Law from a reflection by Professor Kevin YL Tan, former Chairman of DILA, upon the occasion of DILA’s 30th anniversary:
[MCW Pinto] was born on 17 November 1931 in Colombo, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), to Moragodage Walter Leopold Pinto and Judith Beatrice Blazé. He studied at the University of Ceylon at Peradeniya, where he graduated with an LLB degree. He then attended the Sri Lanka Law College where he qualified as an Attorney and after that studied at Magdalene College, Cambridge University, where he obtained his master’s degree (then known as an ‘LLB’ rather than as an ‘LLM’) at Cambridge and a Diploma in International Law. He was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1958. Pinto worked as a legal officer in the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna between 1960 and 1963, and then in the Legal Department of the World Bank from 1963 to 1967. He then returned to Sri Lanka to become Legal Advisor and Head of the Legal and Treaties Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a post he held till 1979. In 1976, he became Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Germany and Austria. Pinto represented Sri Lanka at the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea between 1980 and 1981 and was, from 1982, Secretary-General of the United States-Iran Claims Tribunal till his retirement in 2011. During this last phase of Pinto’s career, he came into contact and worked with Ko in the founding of DILA.
DILA is greatly indebted to Ambassador Pinto and his work promoting international law in Asia. His impact on the development of international is far and wide and described in the first article of this volume entitled “Mr. CW Pinto’s Contribution to the Development of International Law” by Amrith Rohan Perera, former member of the International Law Commission (2007–2011) and former Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka, and Karawita Arachchige Akalanka Nuwan Thilakarathna, Lecturer in Law, Faculty of Law, University of Colombo.
The articles that follow are from papers that were selected from the 2022 DILA International Conference [Online] on the topic of “Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities: Asian State Practice.” They include “Philippine State Practice on Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities” by J. Eduardo Malaya, Philippine Ambassador to The Netherlands; “The Practices on Diplomatic Immunities and Privileges of the Republic of China on Taiwan: A Unique Case” by Chun-i Chen, Distinguished Professor, Department of Diplomacy and Department of Law (joint appointment), National Chengchi University; “Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities: Central Asian Law and Practice” by Rustam Atadjanov, Associate Professor of Public and International Law and Associate Dean at KIMEP University School of Law; “Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities: Australian Practice” by Dorothea Anthony, Lecturer, School of Law, Faculty of Business and Law, at the University of Wollongong; “Diplomatic Immunity and Privileges: Bangladesh State Practice” by Muhammad Ekramul Haque, Professor at the Department of Law, University of Dhaka, and Azhar Uddin Bhuiyan, Lecturer at the Department of Law, University of Dhaka; and “Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities: Looking at the Nepalese Approach” by Pranjali Kanel, Research Assistant, Kathmandu School of Law.
II Legal Materials
The Yearbook from its inception was committed to providing scholars, practitioners, and students with a report on Asian state practice as its contribution to provide an understanding of how Asian states act within the international system and how international law is applied in their domestic legal systems. The Yearbook does this in two ways. First, it records the participation of Asian states in multilateral treaties; and second, it reports on the state practice of Asian states. A number of diligent scholars have provided the Yearbook with reports on the 2021 state practice of their respective countries.
Participation in Multilateral Treaties
Karin Arts of the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague, The Netherlands has compiled and edited the participation of Asian states in multilateral treaties for the 2021 calendar year.
State Practice of Asian States in the Field of International Law
The State Practice section of the Yearbook is intended to offer readers an outline and summary of the activities undertaken by Asian states that have a direct bearing on international law. The state practice rapporteurs have undertaken the responsibility to report on the state practice of their respective countries during the 2021 calendar year. Their submissions describe how these states are applying international law in their domestic legal systems and in their foreign relations.
III Literature
Book Review
For this volume of the Yearbook, Raul C. Pangalangan, Professor of Law of the University of the Philippines and former judge of the International Criminal Court (The Hague), gives his review of Domestic Application of International Law: Focusing on Direct Applicability (Brill Nijhoff, 2023) by Yuji Iwasawa, judge of the International Court of Justice.
Bibliographic Survey
Angela Semee Kim, Assistant Professor of Law at Handong Global University in Korea, prepared the bibliography which provides information on books, articles, notes, and other materials dealing with international law in Asia published in 2021.
IV DILA Activities
The Yearbook concludes with a report on the activities undertaken by DILA in the year 2021, namely the aforementioned 2021 DILA International Conference held on June 28–29, 2021.
Seokwoo Lee
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Hee Eun Lee
Co-Editor-in-Chief