Asian yearbook of international law

It is now over twelve years since the Asian Yearbook of International Law was launched with a view to providing an intellectual forum for the promotion and dissemination of international law in Asia; for the analysis of issues of international law as they apply to Asia and, further, to providing an insight into Asian views and practices on issues of international law for the benefit of both the Asian and the non Asian reader. With the help of a group of distinguished Asian international lawyers all over the world, the three founding General Editors of the Yearbook, Ambassador M.C.W. Pinto, Professor Ko Swan Sik and Professor J.J. Syatauw, published the first volume of the Yearbook in 1991 in The Hague. Looking back, it was a remark able event and a worthwhile venture. After making a great contribution for several years to the objectives of the Yearbook, one of the three founding General Editors. Professor Syatauw, decided following the publication of Volume 6 to take his richly deserved retirement from the Yearbook.

Knowing that there was by then a significant number of international lawyers ready to take over and capable of taking the project to the next stage of development, the two other founding General Editors, Professor Ko Swan Sik and Ambassador M.C.W. Pinto, initiated a process of rejuvenation, designed to bring on board new faces. It resulted in the restructuring both of the Editorial Board of the Yearbook and of the publishing body, the Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA). The process included the successful convening of two major meetings of Asian international lawyers, the first in Manila in 1998 and the second in Singapore in 2001. Consequently, a number of changes took place around the publication of Volume 7: the internal restructuring of the Editorial Board of the Yearbook led to the appointment of three of us, the undersigned, as new General Editors. It also led to the restructuring of the Governing Board of DILA under the chairmanship of Professor Kriangsak Kittichaisaree of Thailand.

This took time, of course, and the publication of the Yearbook fell behind schedule. Now, since the rejuvenation process is complete, the new Editorial Board is deter mined to publish the Yearbook on a regular basis. Both Professor Ko Swan Sik and Ambassador M.C.W. Pinto decided that they preferred, after the publication of Volume 8, to retire as General Editors from the Yearbook, but were requested to remain on the Editorial Board, to which they were so kind as to agree. These Asian luminaries have worked tirelessly over the years to guarantee the success of the project they launched in 1991. Out of his love of international law and a strong desire to promote it in Asia, Professor Ko, Professor Emeritus of Erasmus University. Rotterdam, has devoted much of his time to the publication of Yearbook over the last twelve years. Thanks to all their efforts, it is now on a sound footing and has acquired for itself a reputation as a refereed international law publication. Our sincere thanks go to all three former General Editors of the Yearbook for their vision and hard work; we hope to continue to benefit from the wisdom, guidance and cooperation of Professor Ko and Ambassador Pinto in their capacity as members of the Editorial Board Collaboration with our new publisher, Brill - who publishes the Yearbook under the imprint of Martinus Nijhoff-is as strong as that which we previously enjoyed with Kluwer Law International, and we are grateful to Ms Annebeth Rosenboom for her unstinting support. We are also fortunate in having Ms Paddy Long join us as our new copy-editor, she brings with her a wealth of experience in editing work of a high quality. It is, furthermore, a pleasure to have Ms Anne-Marie Krens as our lay out editor, with the splendid skills required in producing the manuscript of the Yearbook. We look forward to working with our friends and colleagues in the publica tion of the Yearbook, and to serving our readers optimally wherever they may be: both within and outside Asia.