The financial collapse of the International Tin Council (ITC) in 1985 raised three fundamental legal questions. Firstly, whether the granting of legal personality to an organization under international law by means of an international agreement always carries with it the limited liability of the organization. Secondly, it must be asked whether agreements to establish an international entity based on the statutes of international law are never subject to national jurisdiction. And thirdly, consideration is needed of the precautions to be taken in the future in order to avoid this kind of financial collapse. The answers to these questions have to consider that the international organizations have changed the emphasis of their activities from the perception of sovereign duties over the economic field where they rely on trust and cooperation with private enterprises. Due to this situation a distinction must be made between acts of state and activities under civil law. There is no principle at all in international or private law according to which the granting of international personality or legal capacity involves sole liability. Also the Act of State doctrine is not suited to protect the FTC or its member states from recourse to the court by private creditors in the case of civil acts. To realise the aim of creating a new and more equitable economic order and to improve the necessary credit standing, the statutes of the internationalorganizations must also contain improved control mechanisms.

Trademark delimitation agreements are entered into for the purpose of avoiding or settling disputes between owners of conflicting trademarks by defining the spheres within which trademarks may be used. The authors of this article treat the relevant case law and literature on the conflict between trademark delimitation agreements and the Treaty provisions on the free movement of goods and competition in an analytical and critical manner. They propose that the Commission and the ECJ accept delimitation agreements that cause fewer restrictions on trade and competition than would have existed in the absence of the agreement as compatible with Article 85 of the EEC Treaty, in so far as the restrictions flowing from the agreement are covered by the specific subject matter of the trademarks.

European Community and Canadian federal environmental laws as they affect the energy sector -oil and gas, and non-nuclear electricity generation- are reviewed and comparatively analyzed. The study concludes that it is appropriate to consider the development of both the Canadian and European environmental law in terms of a federal model and that there are legal federalism lessons to be learned from both sides. While from an energy sector perspective EC and Canadian environmental policy and law have developed in a broadly similar manner, the study shows important differences in timing and pace of implementation. Canadian energy industries were required to respond earlier to strengthening and harmonizing of air quality standards, and to the scientific and public review demands of environmental assessment than their European counterparts. EC air pollution measures targeted the energy sector more directly and explicitly than is the case in Canada. The EC has also been more successful in coordinating and integrating environmental and energy policy, and is closer to implementing economic pollution control instruments such as tradeable permits and taxes. Canada has placed greater emphasis on civil and criminal liability, including personal liability ofcorporate officers and directors, and the energy sector hasresponded with environmental audits and improvements in compliance and corporate environmental planning. The Canadian energy sector has, to a greater extent than the European imdustry, been required to deal with increasingly extensive rights of the public to participate in environmental decisions.

One of the objectives of the 1982 Convention on law of the sea (LOSC) is that the Convention will bring about an equitable and efficient utilisation of the marine resources. The Preambule states, inter alia, that special notice should be taken of legitimate Third World aspirations. In order to promote their socio-economic development many developing countries -among them various West-African states have directed their attention to the introduction of a resource related maritime zone regime since the 1970's. Several countries made proposals about an ‘Exclusive Economic Zone’. Many states were able to harmonize their position on essential elements of the regime which contributed to the rapid acceptance of the EEZ-concept in international law. The right to explore, exploit, conserve and manage all natural resources in an area not exceeding 200 nautical miles was acknowleged in Articles 56,1 and 57 of the LOSC. The wide support enjoyed by the EEZ concept did not occur in relation to maritime delimitation. Diametrically opposed views were held by the so-called pro-equidistance and pro-equity groups. Delimiatation conflicts between several African states could only be solved with the help of international arbitral tribunals. In order to reach an ‘equitable’ delimitation solution several factors were found to be of importance; a novum was the factor described as ‘the exercise of the right to development’.

The variety of notions of responsibility and liability, used by many publicists, continues to be a source of confusion. It would, therefore, be very clarifying to introduce one meaning for one concept and, thus, use the notions as the ILC defines them. The survey of the several 1LC reports on responsibility and liability shows that the concepts have become more and more interrelated. A different approach might be needed on the subject of international liability in order not to diminish the usefulness these rules can have within the environmental fiel.

Reprisals originally served individuals seeking redress for an injustice suffered abroad. The concept, however, has undergone extensive development. Nowadays, reprisals are -in themselves illegal- retaliatory measures used by one state seeking redress for an illegal act committed by another. The prerequisites for legal reprisals areformulated in the Naulilaa Incident arbitration of 1928. In her examination of the recent history of the concept of reprisals, this arbitration is the author's starting point. After this examination she compares reprisals to other methods of redress. Finally, she investigates the limitation of the use of reprisals as laid down in humanitarian law treaties.

The liberal extension by the United States of its laws to non-resident non-nationals under a so called ‘effects’ doctrine has been the cause of much concern to its closest trading allies. Some fear the European Court of Justice's recent Woodpulp case indicates that the European Community will follow the example of the United States. Jeffrey examines the legality of the ‘effects’ doctrine before looking in detail at the ECJ's decision in Woodpulp. He concludes that the Woodpulp case will not support the use of an ‘effects’ doctrine. Instead it evidences an exciting development in Community jurisprudence within the accepted limits of international law.

The article addresses the establishment of a legal regime concerning liability questions of the aerospace plane. The existing air and space law, as laid down for example in the Chicago Convention and the Outer Space Treaty -especially the definition of the words ‘aircraft’ and ‘space object’-is used as a starting point. The applicability of the existing regimes to the aerospace plane is then evaluated. Two concrete cases, namely liability resulting from damage to third parties on the suiface of the earth and liability after collisions, are presented in depth to illustrate the legal questions that this new hybrid craft will raise. Finally some modest suggestions are made as to the resolution of the conflicts.

Attention for the pollution and degradation of the human environment over the last decades has resulted in an unprecedented increase of activities regarding environmental policy and law at both international and national levels. Since 1972 international resolutions and agreements have distinguished between environmental problems of developing countries and those of industrial countries. In that year it was proclaimed at the Stockholm UN-Conference on the Human Environment that in the developing countries most of the environmental problems are caused by under-development. The extremely complex situation in those countries in this regard was made known to the world community again by the so-called Brundtland Commission in its final report.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in November, 1989, bringing to a close ten years of debate and discussion over the merits of the project as well as the content of its main provisions. Although some representatives expressed misgivings about the content of several articles of the convention, it was adopted by a broad consensus among the member states of the United Nations. In fact, in less than one year, by September, 1990, the convention had been ratified by more than twenty countries, the threshold figure established by Article 49 of the convention, and it entered into force. This set in motion the process for the election of the ten-member Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the body that has been charged with implementing the convention, in February, 1991, and it is scheduled to begin functioning in the fall of 1991. As recently as March, 1991, the United Nations Secretary-General reported to the states parties that 71 states had either ratified or acceded to the convention and that almost 60 other states had signed it. By June, 1991, the ratification of the convention by Belgium brought the total of states parties to over 90.

As a result of the Iraq-Iran war, Iraq's economy has been exhausted. It had a foreign debt of nearly 80 billion dollars. Iraq apparently failed in its attempts to borrow in foreign capital markets the amounts for investment-in particular for the reparation and expansion of oil production capacity-which it needed to restore its economy. In June 1990, Iraq stated that Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates had undermined the Iraqi economy by persistently producing more than their OPEC quotas. On July 18, 1990, the Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs Tariq Aziz stated in the Arab League that Kuwait had stolen Iraqi oil worth 2.4 billion dollars from the Rumaila Oilfield and that Kuwait had built military installations on Iraqi territory. The President of Egypt, Mubarak, then stated that Iraq and Kuwait would negotiate in Jeddah about the Iraqi claim. At the OPEC conference in Geneva on July 26, the minimum reference price was raised to $21.0/b. This despite Iraq's pressure to raise it to $25.0/b. Iraq then warned Kuwait that it had legitimate and historical rights in respect of the Rumaila Oilfield and two islands in the Persian Gulf. On August 1 it turned out that the negotiations in Jeddah had failed. Kuwait stated that it had refused to cede territory. On August 2 Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait. Because of the small capacity of the Kuwaiti army to offer resistance, Kuwait was occupied by Iraq in a very short time.

Rights and obligations connected with intellectual property and liability will influence the commercial exploitation of outer space by private entities. Whilst international space law facilitates private enterprise participation in space endeavour, additional action has been taken, on national as well as multi-national level, to provide the business community with the necessary incentives to play their role in the commercialization of space activities. The situation and legal developments described in this article mark the very beginning of a movement towards the consolidation and diversification of commercial space exploitation.

The 14th Telders International Law Moot Court Competition was held again in the Peace Palace in The Hague from April 4–6,1991. The Leiden Journal of International Law includes the cases put before the teams in her issues, and gives as follow-up the excerpts from the best memorials.

The case put before the teams this year, entitled the ‘International Immunities Case’, combines problems of general international law, such as interim measures and reparation, with legal problems related to jurisdictional immunities. Especially this year the writer of the case succeeded in designing a very up to date assignment, intended to test the students' knowledge, creativity and powers of persuasion.