Dr. Rajan’s book is an educative documentation of the centrality of UN’s role despite the fetters attached to it. The expansion of the juris¬diction of the United Nations can only be a slow process established by precept and example and by practical appli¬cation in specific events. The book deals with this accretional process and argues its irrever¬sibility. It highlights the key role the United Nations has been able to play since its inception in many areas of international crises and enhances much-needed respect for the useful¬ness of the organization. It demonstrates the necessity and the importance of this largest, most representative forum for multilateral diplomacy and its present and future potential role as ‘a centre for harmoniz¬ing the actions of nations’. The book is also a handy and compact reference book. It covers all of the following areas: general questions raised by the debate between domestic jurisdiction and international jurisdiction; the nature of a regime or internal administra¬tion of States (dealing, among others, with situations in Hungary, Cyprus, Greece, Suez Canal); non-self-governing ter¬ritories (Portuguese and Span¬ish territories in Africa, Oman, Angola, Namibia, South Rhod¬esia); economic and social co-operation (aspects of economic and industrial development, population growth, social pro¬gress,
Sept-Oct 1982, volume 7, No 2