1. Article 13 (a) of the Charter has often been used to encourage states in that direction. This Article is basis for the establishment of the International Law Commission.
2. Since the 1970s and the end of the decolonisation process and the increase in the membership of the United Nations, many newly independent states questioned the validity of certain rules of international law based on custom to the development of which they did not contribute. The notion of equal sovereignty of states led to the notion of democratisation of international law, hence the need for consensus and compromise. There is also the general view among many newly independent, smaller and developing states that, in case of doubt or conflict, they might do better to resolve their dispute by judicial means. This view has even become popular with many European states. This attitude reduces the norm-generative power of state behaviour and increases correspondingly the norm-generative power of judicial decisions. Similarly, the proliferation of courts and judicial bodies and the specialisation of international law which has led to the establishment of dispute settlement mechanisms compel states parties to the treaties to resort to those mechanisms.
3. The codification of international criminal law in the last decade and a half is a good example representing both the standard and classical requirements for codification as well as the unconventional factors affecting that process. The proposal for drafting the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court was made before the Yugoslav Tribunal was established. That proposal was not viewed as feasible. It did not enjoy political support from critical states, there was no consensus among states on the general direction to the topic, and there was no pressing need, in the view of many governments, for the establishment of such a court. But two years later, the Balkan conflict and atrocities committed in that conflict changed the political mood. When the Statute of the Yugoslav Tribunal was drafted, there was political commitment on the part of critical states for an international criminal tribunal, not necessarily by enthusiasticchoice, but as a result of having no alternative. Expert reports were prepared by a handful of states which assisted the drafting of the Statute of the Yugoslav tribunal by the Secretariat of the United Nations. For the Rwanda Statute, the pressure from the non-governmental organisation was also a factor, not to mention the gruesome pictures of dead and maimed civilians publicised by the media and embarrassing the political leaders for lack of preventive actions. The two processes bred life into the proposal of drafting the Rome Statute. By then, there were models for similar statutes indicating some general and broad consensus among states as to the substance of such a treaty. It became more difficult for those states that had supported the two ad hoc criminal tribunals now to fiercely oppose a similar statute for a standing tribunal. An additional factor was the commitment of a good number of experts in criminal and humanitarian law who provided the intellectual and technical leadership for the development of the subject. There was also a growing active support by more than 200 organised non-governmental organisations using various modalities for influencing the process in favour of the creation of the court. In short, the convergence of a number of factors bred life to a process which appeared hopeless at the start.
4. Cloning and stem cell research are defined by the Inter Academy Panel as: “Cloning of an organism commonly involves a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer, where the nucleus of an egg cell (containing its genetic material) is removed and replaced with the nucleus of a somatic cell taken from the body of an adult. If the reconstructed egg cell is then stimulated successfully to divide, it may develop to the pre-implantation blastocyst stage. In reproductive cloning, the cloned blastocyst is then implanted in the uterus of a female and allowed to continue its development until birth. However, in cloning for research or therapeutic purposes, instead of being implanted in the uterus the cloned blastocyst is converted into a tissue culture to make a stem cell line for research or clinical applications.”
5. A/56/192.