In the present writer's view, certain decisions of international organizations are to be recognized as manifestations of international law in their own right; those, namely, which address themselves to the members of the relevant organization, or to some of them, and bind them as to their conduct. Being manifestations in written form, their interpretation may as much constitute a problem as does the interpretation of treaties. The main question, here, is whether the methods and rules of treaty interpretation also apply to the interpretation of these “conductdecisions” of international organizations.

On the 5th December 1979, the General Assembly of the UN adopted a Resolution commending an “Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the moon and other celestial bodies”, the Draft of which was agreed to by the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) on 3 July 1979.

On 17 May 1980 Mr. J. de Koning, the Minister for Development Co-operation, addressed a public meeting of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues in The Hague. The Brandt Commission, as it is otherwise known, had recently published a report which made various proposals for structural reforms in the economic relations between the developed countries and the Third World — also with the aim of breaking the almost hopeless deadlock the North-South dialogue had reached.