Chris   My view would be that the amendment procedures
are only available to member States of the IWC.  As
Iceland is not a member then it cannot avail itself of
the amendment procedures in article v.  If Iceland wanted
to become a member subject to certain requirements then
this would be by lodging a reservation.  As the treaty is
silent on reservations, Iceland could only do so according
to general international law. I would take those aspects of
the Vienna Convention regarding reservations as customary
and apply them as a test of the validity of Iceland's
reservation.  Article 20(3) provides that a reservation to
the consitituent instrument of an international
orgainsation requires the acceptance of the competent organ
of that organisation.  Although the provisions of article v
might be suggestive of the procedure, I do not think that
the IWC would be bound to follow them as they refer to
amendments and not reservations.  The procedure to be
followed in such instances would be a majority vote.
        Trinidad and Tobago reacceded to the First Protocol
of the ICCPR in 1998 in order to enter a reservation that
excluded the competence of the Human Rights Committee to
review petitions from prisoners on death row.  I think that
this fell under the usual reservation procedures, but is
worth checking out.

Regards
Richard

----------------------
R.A.BARNES
Sir Q.W. Lee and Dr. Peter Thompson Lecturer in Maritime Law
The Law School
The University of Hull
Hull HU6 7RX
tel: (01482)466320
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http://www.hull.ac.uk/law