The International Law Association was founded in Europe. From its birth it has been strongly supported by European jurists and organisations, among which we can, with gratitude, reckon those from the Netherlands as outstanding in number and quality. But equally it has extended its reach overseas. The United States of America and Canada, both of which have contributed so powerfully to the development of International Law, have for long possessed active branches, and, without attempting a total enumeration, it is sufficient to point to the fact that recent conferences have been held in Japan, Finland and Argentina. Australia is notably represented and there are many other countries in Asia and Africa which, but for currency restrictions, would be capable and anxious to take part in the Association's discussions and work.

1.—Description and characterization—such should be the double aim of this short contribution in the nature of a “visiting-card” handed out at the start of the 1970 Hague Conference of the International Law Association. The participant in the Congress should, indeed, be somewhat orientated as to the place international law occupies in the Netherlands community. The period chosen is the one from the 1938 Amsterdam Conference to the one convened in The Hague. Were it not for this link with two I.L.A.-Conferences, the period might otherwise be deemed to be entirely arbitrary. Yet, it happens almost to coincide with a new phase in Dutch political history. Having stood aside from partisan international politics as much as it could ever since the Napoleonic era, and, in particular, having been neutral in the First World War, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, centre of a far-flung Empire, in 1940, i.e., after 125 years, all of a sudden found itself involved in what was to become World War II. The event came as a heavy blow to a nation which, throughout that one century and a quarter, had been content, without any ambitions on the political scene, quietly to administer and develop its ancient heritage. The cause of international law could not fail, in those circumstances, to be dear to its heart. Small countries, and especially those on the lee side of history, are easily given to the devotion of orderly processes. They cannot but benefit from them. In the case of the Netherlands, however, material interest alone, as it appears, does not account for the totality of its attitude towards international law. Over the centuries, the country's outlook was also determined by spiritual factors. Grotius' personality—he was a theologian as much as a lawyer—most happily bespeaks this state of mind, even though no Dutch writer after him succeeded in blending the two as evenly, and in such lofty manner, as he did. The spiritual strain in Dutch writings on international law after Grotius never filled more than the role of an under-current, stronger or weaker, but its presence is not to be denied. Its influence may also be discerned in the Netherlands' League of Nations policy. Dutch official enthusiasm for the League was sufficiently cautious, in the meantime, to allow the Netherlands in 1938, together with a number of other powers, no more to subscribe to the obligatory character of sanctions as provided for under the Covenant.

In 1938 the International Law Association held its 40th congress in Amsterdam. This year, 1970, the organization will again meet in the Netherlands, this time in the Hague. In this review we shall summarize the most important developments in Dutch scholarly practice regarding private international law during the intervening period.

In an article published in this Journal in 1969, entitled “An Evaluation of the Leading Principles of the Treaty on Outer Space of 27th January 1967”, the present writer gave some consideration to the nature and content of the fundamental principles laid down in this Treaty viz. the principle of freedom of outer space for exploration and use and the principle of outer space including the Moon and other celestial bodies being not subject to national appropriation. Attention was drawn to certain ambiguities and inconsistencies in the text and to the difficulties in ascertaining the common intention of the authors of the Treaty.

The primary object of writing this article in the Conference issue of the Netherlands International Law Review is to acquaint those who want to participate in the discussions on the Conference Topic “Anti-Trust” with the previous work done by the I.L.A. Committee on Anti-Trust and reported in the Tokyo, Helsinki and Buenos Aires Conference Reports. In the absence of some introduction to the subject matter, Conferees would have to study no fewer than 288 pages of the Tokyo Report, 116 pages of the Helsinki Report and 66 pages of the Buenos Aires Report. Obviously, this introduction can only cover the main lines of the work done during the past six years.