A Diplomat´s Handbook of International Law and Practice

Abstract

It gives me great pleasure to write a foreword to :\1r. Sen's excellent book, and for two reasons in particular. In the first place, in producing it, Mr. Sen has done something vvhich I have long felt needed to be done, and which I at one time had am bitions to do myself. \Vhen, over thirty years ago, and after some years of practice at the Bar, I first entered the legal side of the British Foreign Service, I had not been working for long in the Foreign Office before I conceived the idea of writing - or at any rate compiling - a book to which (in my own mind) I gave the title of "A ~fanual of Foreign Office Law." This work, had I ever produced it in the form in which I visualised it, could probably not have been published con sistently with the requirements of official discretion. But this did not worry me as I was only contemplating something for private circulation within the Service and in Government circles. :Mr. Sen's aim has been broader and more public-spirited than mine was; but its basis is essentially the same. One Diplomatic Relations, Functions and Privileges -- I. Historical Introduction -- II. Relations between Nations -- III. Establishment and Conduct of Diplomatic Relations -- IV. Functions of a Diplomatic Agent -- V. Diplomatic Immunities and Privileges -- VI. Position in Third States -- VII. Termination of a Mission -- Two Consular Functions, Immunities and Privileges -- VIII. Consular Relations in General -- IX. Consular Functions -- X. Consular Privileges and Immunities -- XI. Termination of Consular Functions and Position in Third States -- Three International Law -- Selected Topics -- XII. Diplomatic Protection of Citizens Abroad -- XIII. Passport and Visas -- XIV. Asylum and Extradition -- XV. Commercial Activities of States and Immunities in Relation Thereto -- XVI. Recognition of States and Governments -- XVII. Treaty Making -- Appendices -- I. Extracts from the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 -- II. Extracts from the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963 -- Agreements, Treaties and Conventions -- National Laws and Regulations.