User:DominikZimmermann

Under the auspices of Professor Dr. Rüdiger Wolfrum, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, an initiative was launched in 2004 to compile the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (MPEPIL). This work represents a new edition of the Encyclopedia of Public International Law published between 1991 and 2001 by Professor Dr. Rudolf Bernhardt.

Description
Upon its completion, the MPEPIL will be an updated, comprehensive work covering the essential topics in international law. The new work is not just a revision of Professor Bernhardt’s encyclopedia. Instead, new authors completely rewrite nearly all entries. The MPEPIL includes numerous new topics in order to capture the latest developments in international law. To do justice to the changing nature of international law, an increased emphasis will be placed on the relevance of each keyword for contemporary international law. Particular attention will be paid to the contextualization of each topic within international law as well as the presentation of current trends while maintaining a focus on the mainstream/majority view. The goal is to avoid a purely Eurocentric perspective and this will be achieved with the assistance of academics and practitioners from various legal backgrounds and perspectives. The intention is that the MPEPIL will be a work that reflects international law from a global perspective while taking into account regional views.

Contents
With more than 1700 keywords, the MPEPIL will cover the following over-arching subject areas and article types:


 * Air law and law of outer space
 * Diplomacy and consular relations
 * Foreign relations
 * History of international law
 * Human rights
 * Immunities
 * Individuals and non-state actors
 * International co-operation
 * International courts and tribunals
 * International criminal law
 * International economic law and relations
 * International environmental law
 * International humanitarian law
 * International organizations: general aspects
 * International procedural law
 * International responsibility
 * Law of the sea
 * Law of treaties
 * Overview articles
 * Procedural law in international organizations
 * Regional organizations, institutions and developments
 * Relationship between international and domestic law
 * Settlement of disputes
 * Sources, foundations and principles of international law
 * Specific armed conflicts
 * Specific cases and decisions
 * Specific geographic issues
 * Specific treaties and instruments
 * Statehood, jurisdiction of states, organs of states
 * Subjects of international law
 * Territory
 * Theories of international law
 * Universal international organizations and institutions
 * Use of force, war, peace and neutrality.

Given that the information contained in many of the articles may become outdated, authors are asked to update their articles once a year in the first three years after electronic publication of the entire MPEPIL.

Contributors
Over 700 authors from around the globe have agreed to submit articles to the MPEPIL. Among them are not only distinguished professors, judges and legal practitioners, who are involved international law, but also up-and-coming academics and researchers. The latter have been included in order to promote the progressive character of the MPEPIL.

Advisory Board
An Advisory Board, consisting of renowned experts in various fields of international law, applies its expertise to ensure the quality and excellence of each article. They carefully read and evaluate each article, keeping in mind the high standard of the publication. The members of the Advisory Board include: Rudolf Bernhardt, Armin von Bogdandy, Edith Brown Weiss, Jean-Pierre Cot, Yoram Dinstein, Thomas M. Franck, Jochen Abr. Frowein, Meinhard Hilf, Rahmatullah Khan, Martti Koskenniemi, Thomas Läufer, Thomas A. Mensah, Hanspeter Neuhold, Francisco Orrego Vicuña, W. Michael Reisman, Bruno Simma, Daniel Thürer, Christian Tomuschat, Tullio Treves, Rüdiger Wolfrum, and Sir Michael Wood.

Staff
At the Max Planck Institute, a number of persons are or have been involved in the MPEPIL project since its initiation. The staff includes: Managing Editors, responsible for preparatory work, oversight over the project as a whole and to that end, involvement at all stages of the editorial and publication process, all the while ensuring a high level of quality for each article. Internal legal advisors, who are Senior Research Fellows at the Max Planck Institute, assist with quality-assurance in their supervision of the over-arching themes as well as examination of articles. Editorial Staff comprised of Support Staff, Editors, and Student Assistants. The Support Staff assist in the daily administration of the project. Editors review each article to ensure they are in keeping with the project’s style guidelines and make certain the validity and content of the authors’ statements.

Availability
The MPEPIL is available in electronic form at www.mpepil.com. Oxford University Press has started the online publication in August 2008 with more than 450 articles. Regular updates will steadily expand the MPEPIL until all of its content can be accessed online. Sample content is available to all readers for free. Institutions can subscribe for a free trial. Once the online publication of the encyclopedia’s more than 1700 entries is completed, OUP will publish a print version.