On 21 May, Professor Dr. Jan Hendrik Willem Verzijl died peacefully at his home in the ninety-ninth year of his life. In his person, one of the last witnesses of a tremendously important period in international law has passed away — a period commencing, as far as he was concerned, with the Second Hague Conference of 1907.

On December 1st, 1986, an important change took place in Dutch arbitration law. Until then, the old provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure dating from 1838 had governed arbitrations conducted in the Netherlands. In spite of judicial attempts to adapt those rules to modern commercial circumstances, many of them had clearly become obsolete. The present state of arbitration law could only be understood in the light of a body of caselaw, which did little to promote the attractions of a Dutch arbitral forum to international business. This became an increasing source of concern in the Netherlands as international commercial arbitration was expanding and came to offer an alternative to court litigation in many branches of trade and industry. By modernising their arbitration law various other Western European States had taken steps to enhance their chances of being selected as the arbitration host country.

No judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: ‘the Court’) has ever given rise to such commotion in the Netherlands as has the judgment of 23 October 1985 in the Benthem case. In this respect it even exceeded the judgment of 24 October 1979 against the Netherlands in the Winterwerp case, and the judgment of 13 June 1979 against Belgium in the Marckx case, both of which also had very far-reaching consequences for Dutch legislation and legal practice.

The Mekong river, with a length of 4,200 km, is the main watercourse in South-East Asia, flowing from the north-eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau at an altitude of 5,000 m into the South China Sea near Ho-Chi-Minh Ville. Its drainage basin of nearly 800,000 km is larger in area than France and includes Kampuchea, most of Laos and parts of the other four riparian countries, i.e., the People's Republic of China, Burma, Thailand and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. In its course it constitutes parts of the boundaries between the People's Republic of China and Burma, Burma and Laos, Laos and Thailand and Laos and Kampuchea. Its flow increases considerably during the rainy season (May-October), raising the water level at Phnom-Penh by 16 m and flooding the Central Plain of that country, thereby trebling the surface of the Tonlé-Sap (Great Lake) and the Delta in Southern Vietnam. With an annual average discharge of about 475,000 million cubic metres, it is the eighth largest river in the world.

The system of dissenting and separate opinions is said to be essential to the success of the World Court and through it, of international law. On that basis international law seems to be enjoying unprecedented prosperity, for, by contrast with the Permanent Court of International Justice, separate and dissenting opinions currently exceed the judgments of the International Court of Justice (hereinafter the Court) by a considerable margin in terms of the number of pages, a new record being set by Judge Schwebel's dissenting opinion in the judgment of the Court of 27 June 1986. Of course, this situation may be less indicative of the success of international law than to the fact that its scope and content are becoming increasingly open to question. In any event, international law may derive more rather than less strength from the fact that dividing lines are not drawn automatically between judges from North and South or East and West. Even the judgments in the by now famous cases of the American hostages in Tehran and the (para)military activities in and against Nicaragua are widely supported by judges hailing from the main forms of civilisation and the principal legal systems.

It is not at all difficult to criticize the United Nations human rights programme on the grounds of inefficiency, hypocrisy, double standards and lack of imagination. But critics often tend to take a myopic view and overlook what has been achieved over a slightly longer period of time. One such development which has so far received little attention outside the small world of human rights activists and specialised diplomats is the emergence of the ‘thematic’ or issue-oriented response to human rights violations by the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Following the worst industrial accident in history, the leak of poisonous methyl isocyanate gas in Bhopal, India and the deaths of more than 2,000 people with injuries to more than 200,000, suits were soon brought in the United States against Union Carbide Corporation, the owner of a little over 50 percent of the stock in Union Carbide India Limited, the owner and operator of the disastrous plant. The American suits were consolidated in one action before the United States Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Federal District Court, however, dismissed the action on the grounds of forum non conveniens, deciding that the Bhopal case would be more properly litigated in India. The District Court's opinion was endorsed by the Federal Circuit Court for the Second Circuit, also concluding that India, not the United States, was the appropriate situs for the trial.

Modern communications and transportation have brought about not only interdependency between all regions of the world but also an increase in offences committed by or against foreigners or their States. Different States handle this problem in different ways. Among other means, one might mention in this context the enactment of rules of municipal and international law which regulate substantive as well as procedural relationships between authorities of a given State and the perpetrator of an offence with a foreign element'. Such an element exists, for example, if an offence has been committed by a foreigner; if an offence has been committed against a foreigner; if a particular State is to pass judgment on an offence committed abroad; if an offence has been committed in a place where no legal system claims jurisdiction; if a judgment is to be rendered on an offence which has already been the subject of a foreign judgment; if a person is sought for extradition; or if judicial authorities have to take measures in the course of criminal proceedings in the territory of a foreign State, and so on.

The Middle East has experienced more peacekeeping activity, both in volume and variety, than any other region in the world. At the present time the United Nations Interim Force in the Lebanon (UNIFIL) is active in southern Lebanon, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) is maintaining its vigil on the Golan Heights, the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) are stationed in the Sinai, and Observers of the UN Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO) are serving in various sectors of the Middle East.

Parental authority has never been a matter of ‘peaceful possession’. During the course of this century a number of developments have occurred which, according to their content and timing, can be divided into four entirely distinct strands.

In 1864 the first modern penal code (hereafter PC 1864) was issued in Sweden and became effective in 1865. A century later a new Criminal Code (hereafter CC) was adopted in 1962 and came into force in 1965. The CC has since 1965 been partially revised but has retained the same structure. The period from 1865 to the present day has seen the emergence of a totally new society in Sweden, but these increasingly rapid changes have caused the legislator problems in ensuring that the reform of the law keeps pace.

I am going to start with a sentence in Dutch: ‘Och, het volkenrecht laat zich kneden, zoals men wil!!’ (‘Oh, you can mould public international law as you like!’).

The advent of the information society necessitates a review of the existing rules and regulations governing telecommunications facilities. The old legal framework, which in most countries dates from the turn of the century, is in need of replacement. Modern information technology dictates reform.

The Sixth International Tin Agreement (hereinafter ‘ITA6’) came into force on 17 July 1982 and has as its object the stabilization and development of the international tin market for the benefit of producer and consumer States. ITA6 provides for the maintenance of floor and ceiling prices for tin, to be achieved, in part, by the establishment of an international buffer stock financed by government contributions and loans. The operation of the buffer stock is entrusted to the institutional arm of ITA6, the International Tin Council (hereinafter ‘ITC’), which has the power to borrow for the purposes of the buffer stock and to appoint a Buffer Stock Manager. Up to October 1985 the ITC, acting through the Buffer Stock Manager, defended the official floor price of tin, as set by the ITC, by making cash purchases and by financing future purchases through broker and bank loans amounting to some 900 million pounds sterling.

Since time immemorial, provisions contained in the resolutions of the Central Commission (CC) for the Navigation of the Rhine used to be brought into effect in the Netherlands by Order in Council. This concerns the Regulations for the Navigation of the Rhine which are published as an annex to the relevant resolution in the Protocols of the CC.

A West German contractor, Peters, tendered for work in Kerkrade, the Netherlands, and commenced performance. He had omitted to inform the Zuid-Nederlandse Aannemers Vereniging (contractors association) of which he was a member, and to attend its ‘pre-tender meeting’. At that meeting a tender charge was determined which became due from Peters to the ZNAV according to its articles of association. Not being prepared to pay, he was sued in the District Court of 's-Hertogenbosch for the balance of his current account, to which he was also debited with his subscription fee of Dfl. 25,- for the current year.