ABSTRACT
International administration encompasses a broad range of activities - broader than complex peacekeeping. In the early days of a transitional authority, especially, soldiers enforcing the law and administering justice will therefore tend to rely on their own national norms and conventions, and this can sometimes produce significant disparities in practice. Public order and internal security are the sine qua non of civil rule and, by extension, of the international administration of a territory. Like the international administrations of which they are a part, police missions can be distinguished on the basis of the degree of executive authority that they possess. UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) police were only given power of arrest in January 1993, too late to be effective, and for a long time the only weapon at the disposal of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) was 'decertification' of local police officers, dismissal being reserved for use by the local authorities alone.
