The recent Tenerife aircrash of March 1977 involves a variety of multistate issues. The Dutch lawyer, if unable to obtain a satisfactory settlement for his client, may contemplate undertaking action in the U.S.A. He will then be confronted with such questions as against whom he can bring proceedings, under the jurisdiction of which court, what the procedure will be, and which state or national law will apply. He will also be required to know who may bring an action, who may ultimately benefit from it and what items may be included to determine the amount of damages.

John Locke's Two Treatises of Government, published in 1690, exerted a profound influence upon such great instruments on human rights as: The American Declaration of Independence of 4 July 1776; The French Declaration on the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 26 August 1789; The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1948; and The International Covenants on Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 16 December 1966. The reflection of many ideas contained in the Two Treatises of Government in these Instruments on human rights is so obvious that it would be no exaggeration to say that Locke is their spiritual father, although so far this credit is not yet given to him explicitly.

Article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms states that:

“No-one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

The present article is intended to give a résumé of the international law questions arising in connection with Article 25 of the Constitution of the German Federal Republic of 23 May 1949, which reads as follows: “The general rules of public international law are an integral part of federal law. They shall take precedence over the laws and shall directly create rights and duties for the inhabitants of the federal territory”. First of all it must be recalled that the Weimar Constitution of 11 August 1919 included a similar provision. Article 4 provided: “The generally recognised rules of international law constitute a binding integral part of the legal system of the German Empire.”

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 amount of litigation has grown considerably since 1970 in both the Netherlands and West Germany. This is causing concern on both sides of the border. However, the level of litigation is vastly different, the Dutch avoiding court procedures much more easily than the Germans in similar problem situations. A comparison of the ‘legal cultures’ of the Netherlands and the adjacent West German Land of North-Rhine-Westphalia reveals that the difference holds true for most types of court cases. The German courts are called upon to decide far more cases on criminal, civil as well as administrative conflicts, than are the Dutch courts. Not only for this reason, but also because the Dutch courts take a more pragmatic approach to cases, the need for judges is six times higher in North-Rhine-Westphalia. It would be all too easy to see a direct connection between the subsidies granted to the clients of the legal services and the overloading of the court system. The data, however, shows that the contrary holds true. Given the overall availability of legal services the emphasis could be said to lie on litigation in the German system and on advice and assistance in the Dutch system. The Dutch do not make use of the courts so often because they have the alternative of an extensive network of noncommercial advice and assistance agencies and tribunals (in particular for landlord - and - tenant and employment cases). In West Germany, on the other hand, there is less sifting of cases in the early stages of conflict and procedure, owing to the advocates monopoly on legal advice services and the underdeveloped system of legal aid.

On 21 May, Professor Dr. Jan Hendrik Willem Verzijl died peacefully at his home in the ninety-ninth year of his life. In his person, one of the last witnesses of a tremendously important period in international law has passed away — a period commencing, as far as he was concerned, with the Second Hague Conference of 1907.

It is unlikely that anyone would seriously reject the notion that the prohibition on torture has reached the status of a jus cogens norm in international law. On the contrary, the weight of authority in favour of this status is overwhelming. However, the effect in international law of a jus cogens norm, and of the norm which prohibits torture in particular, has yet to be fully worked out. The differences between the majority and minority judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in Al-Adsani v. the United Kingdom are urgent reminders of the uncertainty of litigation in areas of human rights law whose norms are the subject of seemingly overwhelming moral imperatives.

Bij de legenwoordige zware belastingdruk oefent de vrijstelling van belasting over genoten inkomen, aan bepaalde functies op internationaal terrein verbunden, een magische werking uit op hen, die niet op dit voorrecht kunnen aanspraak maken. Met ontstemming nemen zij, die een groot deel van hun zuur verdiende penningen in de grijpgrage handen van de fiscus zien verdwijnen, kennis van het feit, dat de naar hun oordeel toch reeds buitensporig hoge salarissen, op dit gebied betaald, bovendien nog vrij van belasting zijn. Het kornt ons wel nuttig voor in deze tijd, nu het scheppen van nieuwe internationale organen aan de orde van de dag is, aan deze vrijstellingen enkele beschouwingen te wijden.

There are refugees and stateless persons. Some stateless persons are refugees and some refugees are stateless. They all lack proper protection. Often, stateless persons can be considered as refugees, as they might have “a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, and are unwilling or unable to avail themselves of the protection of … the country of habitual residence”. Refugees who are not stateless are those who for the above mentioned reasons are unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of the country of their nationality. A difference is sometimes made between de jure and de facto stateless persons. It is better to speak about de jure and de facto unprotected persons. Generally, refugees are de facto unprotected and stateless persons are de jure unprotected. It would moreover seem more appropriate to concentrate on the protection aspect, as nationality can be related to various forms of protection. In this respect the difference between “unable” and “unwilling” should be stressed: stateless persons are normally unable to invoke any protection, while asylum-seekers with a nationality are normally unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of their country of nationality. It is taken for granted that the relationship between a country and its citizens involves ‘protection’ in whatever form that may be.

La conception très répandue, voire mêrae classique, que Grotius est le père du Droit des Gens, n'a pas empêché la science de ce droit, tout en proclamant que Grotius est à sa base, de s'éloigner singulièrement de lui, et ceci au sujet de matières très importantes. Cette évolution de la science trouve sa contrepartie dans le fait que l'évolution du droit international lui-même semble obliger la science à retourner vers son fondateur.

The Liberian conflict was a violent response to the tyranny and misrule of the then President, Samuel Doe. Doe had come to power after staging a coup d'état in 1980. After five years of military dictatorship, and due to pressure for political reform, Doe's military junta agreed to a programme of democratization which culminated in Doe being elected, allegedly fraudulently, as the first president of the new republic. Notwithstanding its professed commitment to constitutionalism and the rule of law, the violation of human rights continued under the new civilian regime. These human rights abuses, coupled with a growing economic crisis, led to the outbreak of the conflict.