State responsibility — Acts and omissions of State organs and officials — Duty to provide diplomatic protection to nationals abroad — Discretionary nature of duty — Conditions — Exhaustion of local remedies — Time-limit for instituting proceedings to establish State liability — Criteria for determining when time-limit starts to run

Relationship of international law and municipal law — Diplomatic protection of nationals abroad — Duty of State under customary international law — Scope of duty — Whether individual may institute proceedings under municipal law for failure of State to provide adequate diplomatic protection

State succession — Respect for private rights — Accession of Equatorial Guinea to independence — Authoritarian regime and civil disorder — Deprivation and loss of property of Spanish nationals — Whether Spanish State is liable to its nationals for failure adequately to protect their interests — The law of Spain