In an article published in this Journal in 1962, entitled “Some Trends in the Political and Legal Thinking on the Conquest of Space”, the present writer endeavoured to examine whether in the statements and attitudes of statesmen and in the ideas and suggestions of international lawyers, the emergence of certain trends towards the ends and purposes of space exploration and the creation of some order in this new field of human activity, could be detected.

The author discusses the Resolution adopted by the 28th Commission of the Institute of International Law in its session of 1965 (Warschau) with regard to corporations in private international law (rapporteur Prof. G. van Hecke).

A questionnaire had preceded the Resolution from which questionnaire the questions No.'s 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 18, 23, 25 and 26 have been cited in French at the beginning of this study. For its contents one is referred to the text of this study. The quotations are in small print and therefore easy to find for the non Dutch speaking reader.

With regard to the answers that have arrived, the rapporteur makes the following remarks in his provisional report of January 7th, 1965:

a. The answers to question 6 were unanimous: the recognition of foreign corporations is not a separate problem, but the result of a valid incorporation according to the system of law that governs the corporation according to the rules of private international law (lex societatis, loi de la société). This is a matter of theory though.

b. With regard to the answers to questions No.'s 7, 8 and 9 the rapporteur mentions that the entire Commission was of the opinion that the law of incorporation and of the “siège statutaire” (seat according to the charter provisions) in principle always has to be regarded as the “lex societatis” (law governing the corporation); that the Commission was also in agreement about the suggestion that in certain instances one has to depart from this line of thinking and apply the law of the “siège réel” (main place of business) as “lex societatis”; that however there existed different opinions about the question whether the law of the siège réel should be applied as soon as the siège réel is outside the country of incorporation, or only if the siège réel is elsewhere and there also does not exist a “lien effectif” (substantial connection) with the country of incorporation. The questions No.'s 7, 8 and 9 are concerned with the rule of private international law, which determines the lex societatis, that is with the choice between the system of incorporation, the system of the main place of business (siège réel) or a combination of the two. The author refers to the articles 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Resolution (see appendix to study) for the contents of the system that was chosen eventually.

c. With regard to the answers to the questions No.'s 12 and following the rapporteur joins Prof. W. Wengler in his opinion that the old controversy between the law of incorporation and the law of the siège réel is less important these days than the problem of the relation between the lex societatis and the law of the countries where the corporation operates without either having been incorporated there or having its siège réel there. The pertinent questions deal with the defining of the sphere of operation of the lex societatis with regard to the operation of the law systems of the countries, where the corporation penetrates with its economic activities. The position is that the more the corporation penetrates, the more the compulsory law of such countries should be applied. The articles No.'s 7 and following of the Resolution of Warschau deal with these spheres of operation (see appendix). In order to define these spheres of operation the rapporteur starts from three degrees of penetration in the economy of a given country by a foreign corporation. The second French quotation of the study deals with these three degrees.