Francisco Orrego Vicuña, born 12 April 1942, was a renowned and respected professor of international law at the University of Chile. Among many achievements in the course of his long and successful professional career, he took an active part in international arbitration and adjudication, as well as the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea; he acted for Chile in the Beagle Channel papal mediation. And he was a judge ad hoc at the International Court of Justice in the Peru v. Chile case.
In addition to his intensive activities as a practitioner, Orrego Vicuña was a dedicated scholar, whose publications range over the whole spectrum of public international law. His writings cover many aspects of international dispute settlement; he was particularly interested in procedure and in the effects of provisional measures. As far as the substance of the law is concerned, he wrote extensively on customary international law, principles of international law, the law of the sea, the law relating to Antarctica, investment protection, human rights, as well as on international environmental law long before this field became fashionable. His writings are in English, Spanish and French, and are frequently referred to in the literature. His comprehensive knowledge of international law was of immense value when he became a member of the first Advisory Board of the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law.
Orrego Vicuña was a member of the Institut de Droit International from a very early age, reflecting the importance of his contribution to the international law literature.
He was dedicated to international cooperation, being a frequent visitor to the United Kingdom and Germany, among many other places. Upon his initiative, he and Rüdiger Wolfrum established an LLM course co-organized by the Faculty of Law of the University of Heidelberg and the University of Chile on international economic law, which still goes strong.
Considering the breadth of his publications, it was a logical step for him to write, looking back on his career, the present general book setting out his theory of public international law, to which he gave the intriguing title International Law in Search of Rebalance. This most valuable summation of his approach to public international law was very close to finalization when he passed away in October 2018. He made it known to us how keen he was to see it published.
The book is structured according to the classical format for a general work on public international law, which it covers comprehensively. The unifying theme of the book is the sovereignty of States and that public international law has its basis in the consent of States.
In finalizing the text we took great care not to modify in any way the substance of what is Orrego Vicuña’s last writing; our input has been of a minor linguistic or purely technical nature. It should be added that the views of our good friend Francisco are not necessarily ours.
Sincere thanks are due to Simon Milnes KC, who assisted Francisco Orrego Vicuña in editing the manuscript to ensure clarity, and who continued to assist us in that respect. We are also very grateful to Brill/Nijhoff and especially to Marie Sheldon for their assistance with publication.
Rüdiger Wolfrum
Michael Wood