In recent years a burgeoning literature on the apparent ‘fragmentation’ of international law has been developing. 1 It is not a term that has a long history, and is most frequently associated with the problems emerging from the recent proliferation of international courts and tribunals2 and the associated development of autonomous, or semi-autonomous regimes, within the field of international law. 3 Whilst the emergence of new courts and tribunals may well have altered the shape and tenor of international legal activity, it is equally apparent that the issues caught within the snare of the debate are by no means quite as recent. .
