In November 2010, the Netherlands Society of International Law (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Internationaal Recht, NVIR) celebrates its centenary. The NVIR was established in 1910 as the first national branch of the International Law Association (ILA). From 15 to 20 August 2010 the Netherlands Society will host the 74th Conference of the ILA, which is to be held in The Hague. It is for the fifth time that the ILA will have assembled in the Netherlands and the fourth time that The Hague has been chosen to host the ILA members from its 45 branches all over the world. The theme of the 74th Conference ‘De Iure Humanitatis, Peace, Justice and International Law’ very well reflects the present nature and essence of international law and its development from interstate law into law for humanity.

Examination of the work of the International Court of Justice over the period mentioned shows more frequent use of the Court by a wider range of states; a consistent use of the possibilities of advance acceptence of jurisdiction; and some procedural developments, in particular the establishment of provisional measures as imposing a binding obligation of compliance. Some concern is expressed at a trend toward favouring jurisdiction in doubtful cases. The major problem noted is the Court's excessive workload, and a tentative proposal is advanced for easing this.

Although the Millennium Development Goals, declared by the General Assembly in the Millennium Declaration in 2000, do not refer specifically to energy, in reality none of the goals can be attained without universal access to modern energy services. Recent reports from the United Nations have drawn attention to the link between energy and poverty, and have shown that the access to modern energy services is essential for lifting peoples out of poverty and fundamentally improving their quality of life on an everyday basis.

This article examines the nature and magnitude of the situation in less developed states lacking universal access to modern energy services and considers the current, limited national and international law in this area. The article then argues that it is international law that must play the major role in ensuring that universal access to energy services is realized. It considers what type of international instrument might best serve the purpose of achieving progress in improving modern energy services for those in poverty. Finally, the article provides a draft of such an instrument, together with an explanatory commentary, as a prototype of the steps that could be taken by the international community to achieve progress in this area if there is sufficient political will.

The relationship between public international law and the domestic law of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is deeply rooted in the monistic tradition. According to the Dutch Constitution self-executing provisions of treaties and of resolutions of international organizations are binding upon natural and legal persons and have supremacy over national law, including the Constitution itself, Acts of Parliament and subordinate legislation. In this article the ways in which the Dutch courts deal with self-executing provisions, non-self-executing provisions and rules of customary international law are explored. For a long time the developments in the relationship between international and Dutch law have been dominated by the question of how to balance the separation of powers and the duty of the courts to apply public international law. But since the 1990s yet another problem has been gaining attention. There is growing concern about the question whether legal and natural persons are adequately protected by the Constitution against instruments of public international law (such as, for instance, decisions by UN sanctions committees) which may interfere with their basic rights, such as the right to a fair trial.

This article presents an analysis of the role and content of proportionality under contemporary international humanitarian law governing the means and methods of warfare (jus in bello) and is designed to present a legal analysis of proportionality to help provide a context for state practice. The events of Operation ‘Cast Lead’ and the reactions of the international community may be instrumental in determining the role assigned to proportionality in the context of armed conflicts. A study on jus in bello proportionality with reference to Operation ‘Cast Lead’ offers a contribution to a further development of the concept of proportionality and to resolving some of its controversial issues concerning its role and content in order to improve the current compliance of the principle.

Scholarly literature has generally considered the phenomenon of pro-democratic interventions from the perspective of state-sovereignty, the prohibition of the use of force, and the principle of non-intervention. A human rights approach has remained underexposed to date, even though new manifestations of pro-democratic intervention seem to conflict with the right to self-determination of the local population. The main purpose of this article is to explore the (in)compatibility of the right to political self-determination on the one hand, and new appearances of alleged pro-democratic intervention on the other, thereby using Operation Iraqi Freedom as a test case. The case of Iraq will demonstrate how processes of political transition as part of 'pro-democratic' interventions can endanger observance of the core meaning of the right to political self-determination. More generally, it will be argued that a fundamental tension exists between both concepts.

The author selects three capita selecta with regard to the Insolvency Regulation. He claims that the lex concursus governs the question of whether a third party who claims to have purchased a movable unregistered asset or an asset gratuitously from a person who was subjected to an insolvency proceeding is in fact protected. Furthermore, he reaches the conclusion that the Dutch cooling-off period can have effects in other Member States, provided that some conditions are met. Finally, the author comments on the German Graphic case, in which the Court of Justice of the European Communities has ruled that an action based on a reservation of title against the purchaser who is insolvent is an action in the field of civil and commercial law and is not excluded from the scope of the Brussels I Regulation, and that Article 7(1) of the Insolvency Regulation does not alter this conclusion.

There have been times when public and private international law were closely related. As a means to solve conflicts of sovereign jurisdiction, conflicts law used to be considered as an integral part of the law of nations. Even after Savigny shifted the focus of private international law from the spatial reach of national law to the geographical ‘seat’ of a legal relationship, it was still thought that its rules were, or should be, endorsed by the international legal community. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, public and private international law started to drift apart. It is now generally accepted that states have no mutual obligation with regard to the solution of conflicts cases: private international law is basically national law.

Nevertheless, most states are still prepared to adapt their conflicts-of-law rules to universal standards. National differences were mitigated by the acceptance of party autonomy, proper law exceptions, and a reduction of the nationality principle. The methodological gap caused by the American ‘conflicts revolution’ is gradually being bridged by a more flexible, policy-oriented approach in Europe, and by a return to ‘rules’ in the United States. These developments tend to promote the adoption of universal rules and principles. As academic disciplines public and private international law may have gone their separate ways, but they are still united by their common history, their objectives, and, increasingly, by the universal acceptance of their standards.

The ILA approach to the progressive structuring of international society, so typical of later 19th Century social optimism, has from the very first found a warm advocate in its oldest national branch, the NVIR. The idea to assemble legal luminaries and captains of industry into a single body might not be quite representative of the Dutch, rather compartmentalized, tradition of legal thinking, but even so, the NVIR, after a first abortive attempt in 1875, from its ‘re-launch’ in 1910 invariably met with a thoroughly welcoming intellectual climate in the Netherlands.

Over the past century, the Society's (board) members have not consistently proved themselves visionaries in their anticipation of, or reaction to, social change, be this in the domestic sphere or the international domain. Symptomatic of this were the fairly conservative views they held on such issues as Neutrality or the League of Nations in the 1920s; on the conflict with Indonesia, also regarding New Guinea, in the post-WWII years; on the Benelux experiment and the Schuman Plan in the 1950s; or on the decolonization process in the 1960s.

Even so, in the final analysis, the views represented by the NVIR have invariably been a welcome, indeed fairly refreshing contribution to the Dutch social debate. Also, and in spite of the progressive institutionalization and codification in the international arena auspicated by a wealth of intergovernmental bodies, ILA and the NVIR never did, nor will they presumably, fail in carving a very respectable niche of their own in aspiring to help the implementation of the Rule of Law in this world drawing nearer.

This article reviews Dutch contributions to international law and focuses on the last 100 years to mark the centenary of the Netherlands Society of International Law. It poses the question whether this is a missionary burden, resulting from the constitutional duty incumbent upon the Dutch government to ‘promote the development of the international legal order’, or enlightened self-interest on the part of the Netherlands. The article briefly recalls the two Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907 and Dutch initiatives for a third that had been planned for 1915 at a time when the Dutch pursued a policy of neutrality. It also reviews some Dutch initiatives in the context of the League of Nations and Dutch policy during the San Francisco Conference that established the United Nations in 1945. The German occupation and membership of the United Nations marked the real end of the Dutch policy of neutrality. From the outset, the Netherlands became an active participant in nearly all principal fields of the United Nations' activity. The article highlights a number of Dutch international law initiatives in the fields of human rights, development, peace and security, international humanitarian law, and the peaceful settlement of international disputes. It concludes with final observations on the preoccupation of the Netherlands with international law.

Introductory Note

The Dutch Committee of Inquiry on the War in Iraq presented its report to Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende and provided copies to both houses of parliament on 12 January 2010. The Committee had been established by the Balkenende cabinet on 6 March 2009 to conduct an independent inquiry into the decision-making process leading to Dutch political (but not military) support of the war in Iraq, in general, and into aspects of international law, intelligence and information gathering as well as alleged Dutch military involvement in Iraq, in particular.[…]

In view of the wide interest in the subject matter, including considerable international interest on the findings of the Committee on the international law basis, the Board of Editors has decided to translate this international law chapter into English which is reproduced here in its entirety. References to other chapters of the report have been retained. The Board of Editors gratefully acknowledges the kind permission of the Committee of Inquiry and Boom publishers to publish this text.

This article discusses the manner in which the Netherlands has engaged with the development of international environmental law since the beginning of the 20th century. It deals with a number of selected topics by focusing on three themes which have at various times surfaced in during the past 100 years. These three themes are individuals matter, principles and pragmatism and European and international environmental law. The topics discussed are nature conservation, oganotins in anti-fouling paint, the whaling regime, climate change and water (river and oceans) law in Europe. The article concludes that the Netherlands continues to invest in the development of international environmental law and that its position is best characterized as pragmatically pro-environment and in support of sustainable development. The conclusions also point out that one theme runs through the development of international environmental law: a search for the ‘right’ institutions.