1. INTRODUCTION

As in most fields of human endeavour, it is not possible to escape the influence of public international law, nor wise to overlook it.1 This is the system of law that governs relations between States2 and other actors whose personality is recognised on the international plane, in other words international organisations established by States.3 Natural and legal persons, i.e. human beings and companies or other entities that the law of a given country endows with personality, were until quite recently not subjects of international law, and their role in it today remains marginal.