After many years of hard work by politicians and jurists the Belgian municipal law on legitimacy has finally been reformed. There was a protracted debate, but not on the question of international adoptions. The amendments concerning international adoptions were decided upon unusually speedily. Within four months of the submission of the bill, the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate had reached an agreement. Only problems of parliamentary procedure prevented the bill being passed earlier.

The quest for clear-cut legal structures in corporate bodies is not only propelled by dogmatic interest, but often also from shaken confidence and frustrated expectations. When in October 1985 a leading official of the International Tin Council, the manager of its buffer stock, declared that the Council was henceforward no longer able to meet its financial commitments and when subsequently no agreement on the settlement of outstanding claims could be reached, the Council's creditors as well as its members were faced with a host of legal issues for which the general rules of public international law provide no easily extricable guidance. In the face of the insolvency of an international organization the recourse to measures of liquidation as provided for in national company laws or the determination of the position of the organization's creditors vis-à-vis the member States cannot follow the broad path of consolidated State practice and legal doctrine.

The conquest of outer space has provided countless benefits and offers limitless potential for mankind. Despite the important developments which have been made in various fields connected with the exploitation of outer space, the predominant application of space science and technology is the communications satellite which is used for the transmittal of audio (radio), telegraph, telephone, and visual (television) transmissions either to a limited (local) or vast (national, regional, international), area. The most controversial of these functions is television broadcasting, as it is generally accepted that individuals are more influenced by what they see than by what they hear.

The 1968 Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, as amended by the 1978 Convention on the Accession of Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom, entered into force as between the original six Common Market States and Denmark on the one hand, and the United Kingdom on the other, on 1 January 1987. The Convention is given internal effect within the United Kingdom by the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982.

Entries into force subsequent to this date and pending the expiration of time consequent upon already executed formalities are indicated by the use of italics.