The world today is bipolarised with the two giants, and the camps they lead, confronting each other in the stances of the cold war along the entire length of the international frontier. At various points along this frontier, particularly in Asia, the cold war has ‘hotted up’ into a shooting war; but such outbreaks have been sporadic and after an initial outburst have quietened down. However in Europe, the centre of most major wars during the last century, there has been one continuing fester with Berlin as its core, and the relations of the Great Powers in that city have reflected the temperature of the cold war and the proximity of a shooting war. Every issue between States is conditioned by both political and legal considerations, and it is the purpose of this paper to examine the legal status of Berlin, ignoring in so far as that is possible the political factors governing the problem.

On December 15th, 1960 the Ministerial Decree of September 5th, 1960 relating to limitation of liability of owners of seagoing ships came into force. At the same time the Decree of February 7th, 1952 was withdrawn.

The alteration concerns mainly the increase of the amount per ton for which limitation of liability may be invoked by virtue of Sect. 474, 525 and 541 Neth. Comm. Code.

This Decree is—as we may expect—a harbinger of a more profound adaptation of the Dutch Code to the «International Convention Relating to Limitation of Liability of Owners of Seagoing ships», which was signed by our representatives ad referendum at the Brussels Diplomatic Conference of October 1957.

La question de l'immunité des navires d'Etat se distingue essentiellement du problème plus vaste de l'immunité des Etats étrangers en général en cela qu'elle fait l'objet d'une série de conventions multilatérales, tandis que les autres aspects de l'immunité des Etats ne sont que sporadiquement réglés par des conventions internationales. Les deux conventions de Bruxelles, signées le 23 septembre 1910, l'une sur l'unification de certaines règles en matière d'abordage, l'autre sur l'unification de certaines règles en matière d'assistance et de sauvetage maritimes contiennent les premières règles qui touchent notre sujet. Ces conventions portent sur les responsabilités et les actions en réparation des dommages du chef d'abordage, respectivement la procédure de fixation d'une rémunération pour l'assistance ou le sauvetage.