Le 18 septembre 1957 s'ouvrira à Amsterdam la 47ème session de l'Institut de Droit International sous la présidence du Membre le plus ancien du groupe recevant, le professeur J. P. A. François. A l'exception de la séance d'ouverture qui se tiendra à l'Institut Royal des Tropiques, toutes les réunions auront lieu au Trippen-huis, siège de l'Académie Royale Néerlandaise des Sciences.

Three years ago, the International Court of Justice was called upon to express its opinion on the question as to whether certain judgments rendered by the Administrative Tribunal of the United Nations (U.N.) in favour of officials of the Secretariat dismissed by the Secretary General were final. The latest Advisory Opinion of the Court under the above heading was once again concerned with the final character, or otherwise, of certain judgments of an Administrative Tribunal, on this occasion the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), recognized by the Governing Body of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), in a special declaration under Article II, paragraph 5 of the Tribunal's Statute, as also competent to hear complaints of UNESCO officials. In both instances the answer of the International Court was in favour of the final character of the Tribunal's judgments, but the circumstances in which the question arose were varied and the Tribunals acted under somewhat different Statutes. In the second case it was no longer contested that the pronouncements of the Tribunal concerned were real judgments and, therefore, binding in principle.

Le 24 octobre 1956, lors de sa séance de clôture, la Huitième Session de la Conférence de La Haye de droit international privé adopta, parmi d'autres textes, un «Projet de Convention sur la loi applicable au transfert de la propriété en cas de vente à caractère international d'objets mobiliers corporels». Les éminents internationalistes réunis au Palais de la Paix achevaient ainsi une œuvre ardue et de longue haleine, commencée près de trente ans plus tôt par l'International Law Association.

An examination of the practice of United Nations organs, including the International Court of Justice, discloses no rules requiring a party who invokes an international agreement before any of those organs to show compliance with Article 102. Nor have we found any instance in which an organ has imposed the penalty of Article 102(2) or in which a party has urged it to do so. This is not to say that no United Nations organ has ever been confronted with an agreement that required registration but which had not been registered. A number of the contentious cases before the International Court presented just such a situation. As will appear from the discussion of cases which follows, the instances in which it can be said that the Court gave effect to such unregistered agreements all involved so-called Special Agreements by which, under Article 36 of the Court's Statute, parties may bring their cases before the Court. This raises the questions whether the Court considers such agreements to be outside the scope of Article 102, and if so, why.

Eene halve eeuw geladen was de universitaire belangstelling voor het volkenrecht in ons land grooter dan thans het geval is. Speciale leerstoelen werden achtereenvolgens ingesteld; hoewel het geen verplicht examenvak gold, was de belangstelling der Studenten goed en versehenen tal van volkenrechtelijke proefschriften.