Current trends in social relationships, strongly influenced by their increasingly international character, are resulting in a steadily growing interdependence of sovereign States. Political, economic, military and social problems have been re-examined. Organisations, economic unions, military alliances and defence agreements have been established. Free movement of persons and goods is everywhere considered to be desirable, while in the meantime the formalities to be completed on crossing frontiers have been reduced to a bare minimum. The development of tourism, which now plays an important role for three or four months in the year and which attracts all sections of the population, is equally a demonstration of a real desire for foreign contacts.

In 1967, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the Confederation, the author of this paper suggested that it was about time for Canada to join the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Such a move would show to everyone that Canada's legal horizons and objectives had become world wide. The government of the day followed this suggestion and, in 1968, Canada joined the Conference. Since that time, Canada has participated actively in its work as well as that of other international organizations devoted to the unification of law especially in the area of commercial law. It is, therefore, appropriate to examine recent trends in the field of private international law in Canada on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the Hague Conference and to ascertain the extent to which Canadian rules have been influenced by its conventions.

Radioactive waste is not at present, at least officially, dumped at sea or disposed of into the seabed. At the regional level, several treaties prohibit such disposal. At the global level, the dumping at sea of high-level radioactive waste and the disposal of all radioactive waste in Antarctica, including the ocean areas south of 60 degrees south latitude, are prohibited by international law. The dumping at sea of low-level radioactive waste and the sub-seabed disposal of all radioactive waste (hereinafter also referred to as the ocean disposal options), at the global level, are subject to legally non-binding and temporary suspensions or moratoria. It is thus that the ocean disposal options remain on the international agenda and that the permissibility of using these options remains an issue of debate.

This article is premised on my belief that the use of force and violence should not be unlimited, even in times of war. Despite countless examples of apparently lawless wartime behavior, the fact that international wars are subject to limits is fairly well-accepted. The Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes trials evidence the consequences of having exceeded acceptable limits of violence and the Geneva Conventions of 1949 represent an extensive codification of those limits for international war. Most States are parties to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and many of the provisions of those treaties are recognized as customary international law.

After a conceptual examination of global values and their role in international law, this article examines the role of the United Nations, especially the General Assembly, in the translation of globally shared values into legally binding international commitments. This process already commenced with the United Nations Conference on International Organization, held in 1945 in San Francisco, where the UN Charter was born. The way this process functions is illustrated by using the global value of social progress and development as an example. First, it is shown how this value ended up in the UN Charter in 1945. This is followed by a description of this value's evolution, especially the inclusion of a ‘sustainability element’, which took place at the General Assembly and various global conferences organized under the auspices of the United Nations.

The Conference which met at Lancaster House, London, from March 31 to April 6, 1966, from October 17 to 28, 1966, and from March 6 to 17, 1967, and which resulted in the establishment of a new “Convention on Conduct of Fishing Operations in the North Atlantic” was made necessary by the denunciation by the British Government in 1963 of the Hague “International Convention for regulating the Police of the North Sea Fisheries” which, since 1882, had governed the conduct of fishing operations and their policing between the coastal states of the North Sea. Formally the convening of this Conference was based on a resolution, adopted by the 1963/64 European Fisheries Conference on January 17, 1964, asking the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:

“To invite the Governments of all countries participating in the North-East Atlantic fisheries to send representatives to a technical conference to be held as soon as possible to prepare for the consideration of the governments concerned a draft Convention, on the general lines of the 1882 Convention for regulating the police of the North Sea Fisheries, embodying a modern code for the conduct of fishing operations and of related activities in the North-East Atlantic;

And to invite the Governments of the United States of America and Canada to send representatives to the Conference so that the extension of the provisions of any such Convention to the North-West Atlantic Fisheries may be considered.”

Since literature is not capable of providing a generally accepted answer to the question “What in fact is an international firm?” it is submitted that in this paper a definition should be given being operational in the context of this study.

Thus an international firm is defined as:

—a group of business bases subject to some degree of central managerial control;

—operating within geographically diversified markets subject to different political, legal and cultural spheres; and

—usually interdependent through some form of capital sharing.

First of all, I should like to thank you all, in particular the Director of your Institute, Dr. Voskuil, and the Head of its Public International Law Department, Dr. Ko Swan Sik, for your kind invitation to attend this meeting. In the fact that you have given me this opportunity to talk about some of the fundamental questions relating to the socialist views on international law I see not only a proof of your interest in the subject, but also a task and a duty for me to make a modest contribution, by exchanging our views, towards a better mutual understanding of our attitudes to fundamental political and legal problems that are the subject of international discussion to-day.

The problem of defaulting maintenance debtors is not just an international phenomenon; it exists in purely domestic relationships as well. The difference is that in an international case, particularly where the parties do not reside in the same country, additional problems complicate the situation. Most of these problems relate to procedural questions, such as those of international jurisdiction and enforcement of foreign orders. Since maintenance creditors are usually needy parties, other problems in the field of procedural law relate to the obtaining of legal aid and exemption from security for costs. Apart from that, questions concerning the transfer of funds might also arise.