Structures at sea which are described by the term “artificial islands” have, notwithstanding great diversity in form, three characteristics in common. They are exclusively the work of man, surrounded by water and used for work on a fixed place. As such they “occupy” more or less permanently a certain part of the sea. One can interpret the term more narrowly and understand by it only structures made by man from natural sources to form a piece of land, surrounded by water which rises above it at high tide. Prof. François 4 distinguishes in this way between: “artificially shaped elevations of the seabottom which have an essential island character” and, “permanent, bottom-based installations”. He regards the first category as territory and attaches to it a territorial sea, which the second group does not have. In positive law there is no room for François' distinction because international law recognises only naturally formed islands as islands in the legal sence. Until recently the distinction was in practice not important because the building of “islands” in this narrower sense was not undertaken and academic opinion did not regard such construction as probable. Events, however, have changed this.

During the 1974 Annual Meeting of the Netherlands International Law Association, held at Maastricht on 11 May, the report of Mr. Heijmans on artificial islands and the Law of Nations was discussed. The following is a succinct account of the discussion.

La signature, la ratification et l'entrée en vigueur en 1953 du Concordat conclu par l'Espagne et le Saint-Siège étaient censées devoir adapter les dispositions du Code civil relatives au manage, aux conditions prévues par ce traite.

La réforme fut achevée par la loi du 24 avril 1958.

En vertu de celle-ci, le droit espagnol connaft deux types ou catégories de manages: le manage civil et le mariage “canonique”. Tous deux ont leur propre domaine d'application, bien qu'il ressorte du texte de la loi que le mariage “canonique” soit la règie, et le mariage civil l'exception.

Examinons brièvement chacune de ces deux catégories.

In 1971, the Institute for international law and international relations of Zagreb University organised a round table conference in Yugoslavia on international law with staff members of the T.M.C. Asser Institute for international law at The Hague.