A Diplomat's Handbook of International Law and Practice

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.