XVI
Preface
tracted negotiation in the Third United Nations Conference on the Law
of the Sea efforts were focused much more on establishing a balance be-
tween conflicting interests than in working on the basis of a scientifically
accurate image of the maritime domain subjected (or not) to State juris-
diction and control.
The decisions also depend on the type of States involved in the nego-
tiation. Harold Nicholson used to make (not convincingly enough) a dis-
tinction between democratic diplomacy and “the other”. In any case, with
or without this distinction, the negotiator is bound to follow instructions
and the question as to who gives the instructions and what is the degree
of public control of that authority (for at least the 191 member States of
the United Nations) needs to be answered on a case-by-case basis. Bu-
reaucracy, as Max Weber has put it, is not only a part of the governmental
machine but also a state of mind if not a class imposing its will on the rest
of the society.
Undoubtedly, multilateral diplomacy has prompted a new spirit in the
process of negotiation. It has established more effective rules of behavior
for State representatives and introduced new actors (the international or-
ganization and other non-State networks) into the game.
The field of international environmental negotiation is not exempted
from conflicts motivated by political, economic, cultural and other con-
siderations. Argument is intense in a field where the laymen would have
trusted that solutions could be easily arrived at and international cooper-
ation operate effectively. Yet, the cautious approaches followed by some
governments or the inability of governments to cope with long estab-
lished popular practices can sometimes explain the low degree of ratifica-
tions and the slowness of implementation of the regulatory package con-
tained in the impressive number of about 900 international instruments
counted by Edith Brown Weiss and currently in force for the protection of
the environment.
As for the question of the amendment of multilateral treaties it is true
that nowadays the great number of States parties can make it very dif-
ficult to renegotiate existing treaties. Nevertheless, there are examples of
expeditious procedures precisely in the field of environmental protection:
