Two major factors brought about the establishment of the Netherlands Yearbook of International Law in 1970: demand for the publication of national practice in international law, and the desirability for legal practitioners, state representatives and international lawyers to have access to the growing amount of available data, in the form of articles, notes etc. The Documentation section contains an extensive review of Dutch state practice from the parliamentary year prior to publication, an account of developments relating to treaties and other international agreements to which the Netherlands is a party, summaries of Netherlands judicial decisions involving questions of public international law (many not published elsewhere), lists of Dutch publications in the field and extracts from relevant municipal legislation. Although the NYIL has a distinctive national character it is published in English, and the editors do not adhere to any geographical limitations when deciding upon the inclusion of articles.

Part I. Articles: 1. Introduction D. Curtin and A. Nollkaemper; 2. International legal accountability through the lens of the law of state responsibility J. Brunnee; 3. Responding to the undesired: state responsibility, risk management and precaution W. Werner; 4. International law in a world of democracies: a world without accountability? B. Rajagopal; 5. International organizations and the concept of accountability. An analysis of the Final Report of the ILA Committee on Accountability of International Organisations from an institutional legal perspective I. Dekker; 6. Accountability of international organizations according to national law A. Reinisch; 7. Which form of government for the European Union? W. van Gerven; 8. Does one size fit for all? European community and the 'codification' of the responsibility of international organizations E. Paasivirta and P. J. Kuyper; Part II. Documentation: 9. Netherlands state practice for the parliamentary year 2003-2004 P. C. Tange; 10. Treaties and other international agreements to which the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a party - Conclusions and developments 2004 M. A. van der Harst; 11. Netherlands municipal legislation involving questions of public international law, 2004 P. C. Tange; 12. Netherlands judicial decisions involving questions of public international law, 2003-2004 L. A. M .N. Barnhoorn; 13. Dutch literature in the field of public international law and related matters, 2004 A. C. M. Mulder.