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 not at all difficult to criticize the United Nations human rights programme on the grounds of inefficiency, hypocrisy, double standards and lack of imagination. But critics often tend to take a myopic view and overlook what has been achieved over a slightly longer period of time. One such development which has so far received little attention outside the small world of human rights activists and specialised diplomats is the emergence of the ‘thematic’ or issue-oriented response to human rights violations by the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Modern communications and transportation have brought about not only interdependency between all regions of the world but also an increase in offences committed by or against foreigners or their States. Different States handle this problem in different ways. Among other means, one might mention in this context the enactment of rules of municipal and international law which regulate substantive as well as procedural relationships between authorities of a given State and the perpetrator of an offence with a foreign element'. Such an element exists, for example, if an offence has been committed by a foreigner; if an offence has been committed against a foreigner; if a particular State is to pass judgment on an offence committed abroad; if an offence has been committed in a place where no legal system claims jurisdiction; if a judgment is to be rendered on an offence which has already been the subject of a foreign judgment; if a person is sought for extradition; or if judicial authorities have to take measures in the course of criminal proceedings in the territory of a foreign State, and so on.

In 1864 the first modern penal code (hereafter PC 1864) was issued in Sweden and became effective in 1865. A century later a new Criminal Code (hereafter CC) was adopted in 1962 and came into force in 1965. The CC has since 1965 been partially revised but has retained the same structure. The period from 1865 to the present day has seen the emergence of a totally new society in Sweden, but these increasingly rapid changes have caused the legislator problems in ensuring that the reform of the law keeps pace.

The Sixth International Tin Agreement (hereinafter ‘ITA6’) came into force on 17 July 1982 and has as its object the stabilization and development of the international tin market for the benefit of producer and consumer States. ITA6 provides for the maintenance of floor and ceiling prices for tin, to be achieved, in part, by the establishment of an international buffer stock financed by government contributions and loans. The operation of the buffer stock is entrusted to the institutional arm of ITA6, the International Tin Council (hereinafter ‘ITC’), which has the power to borrow for the purposes of the buffer stock and to appoint a Buffer Stock Manager. Up to October 1985 the ITC, acting through the Buffer Stock Manager, defended the official floor price of tin, as set by the ITC, by making cash purchases and by financing future purchases through broker and bank loans amounting to some 900 million pounds sterling.