scholarly journals Legal justifications for gender parity on the bench of the International Court of Justice: An argument for evolutive interpretation of Article 9 of the ICJ Statute

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Jessica Lynn Corsi
Keyword(s):  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Gender Parity ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Article 9 ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Icj ◽  
Rules Of Procedure ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
The Law

Abstract The UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council should amend their rules of procedure to create gender parity on the bench of the International Court of Justice. Only 3.7 per cent of all judges on the ICJ have been women. The UN Charter, ICJ Statute, and long-standing practice of the Court underscore the importance of representation, but the focus has been on geographical representation. Using the law of international organizations, combined with the law of treaty interpretation and international human rights law, this article argues that Article 9 of the ICJ Statute should be interpreted to include a requirement of gender parity. Established practice, subsequent practice, and the UN’s multi-decade gender parity in staffing policy establish an evolutive interpretation of what is required to fulfil equality at the UN and the ICJ. The nomination and election procedures for ICJ judges are sufficiently flexible to facilitate this interpretation.

scholarly journals The Search for Meaning: continuing Problems with the Interpretation of Treaties

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter McRae
Keyword(s):  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Search For Meaning ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Orthodox Interpretation ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Icj ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
The Law

This paper argues that old controversies regarding the objects and methods of treaty interpretation have not been resolved by the coming into force of articles 31 and 32 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969. The articles, it is argued, have not so much resolved previous debates between "schools" of interpretation, as obscured them under an apparently clear regime, while interpreters continue to adopt their own preferences. The paper describes the three main schools – textualist, intentions of the parties, and teleological – and concludes none offers a satisfactory scheme by itself. It then examines the development of the Convention articles, and concludes they represented a compromise in which the drafters failed to resolve the key issue of the underlying purpose or object of interpretation. It then shows that an orthodox interpretation of the articles has developed, which assumes they embody the textualist position. The paper then discusses how this orthodoxy has been accepted by the majority of the International Court of Justice in the 1990s, but with significant dissent drawing on insights from especially an intentions of the parties approach. The paper then draws on insights from modern approaches to the interpretation of commercial contracts, to suggest that the best resolution of the "text versus intentions" dichotomy lies in accepting that establishing the actual intentions of parties is the purpose of interpretation, and that therefore an apparently clear text will be strong but not conclusive evidence of such intentions. The paper examines how this refinement would have helped to resolve difficult interpretations before the ICJ, and concludes that such an approach is both desirable and consistent with articles 31 and 32.

scholarly journals States’ Mouthpieces or Independent Practitioners? The Role of Counsel before the ICJ from the Perspective of the Legal Value of their Oral Pleadings

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-76
Author(s):  
Marco Longobardo
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
State Practice ◽  
The Icj ◽  
Treaty Interpretation

Abstract This article explores the role of counsel before the International Court of Justice, taking into account their tasks under the Statute of the Court and the legal value of their pleadings in international law. Pleadings of counsel constitute State practice for the formation of customary international law and treaty interpretation, and they are attributable to the litigating State under the law on State responsibility. Accordingly, in principle, counsel present the views of the litigating State, which in practice approves in advance the pleadings. This consideration is relevant in discussing the role of counsel assisting States in politically sensitive cases, where there is no necessary correspondence between the views of the States and those of their counsel. Especially when less powerful States are parties to the relevant disputes, the availability of competent counsel in politically sensitive cases should not be discouraged since it advances the legitimacy of the international judicial function.

scholarly journals Notes on the International Court of Justice (Part 8)—Interim Accord (FYROM v. Greece) and the Settlement of the Macedonian Name Dispute: Knowing and Seizing upon Many Things or One Big Thing in Treaty Interpretation and International Dispute Settlement in General

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-502
Author(s):  
Sienho Yee
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
State Party ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
International Dispute ◽  
The Icj ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
Final Agreement ◽  
The One

Abstract During the lead-up to the Final Agreement settling the Macedonian name dispute, apparently no or scant mention was made of the Interim Accord (FYROM v. Greece) case that FYROM brought in 2008 and won overwhelmingly in 2011 against Greece at the International Court of Justice (“ICJ” or the “Court”). This paper highlights the structure and main points of the ICJ judgment in the Interim Accord case and analyzes the part of the judgment on the main substantive issue. The paper argues that, even on its own terms, the Court’s judgment did not conduct the interpretation exercise to the full and further that the experience with the Court’s judgment in this case does flash a warning light to any decision-maker that it must not lose sight of “the one big thing”, which may vary from case to case, in a dispute settlement endeavor if it wants to have its decision implemented. This experience also teaches any State party in a dispute that it may have to know and unyieldingly seize upon the one big thing in the dispute settlement effort in order to achieve its goal.

scholarly journals TRAVAUX PREPARATOIRES: APPLICATION BY THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE IN INTERPRETATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

2019 ◽  
pp. 144-152
Author(s):  
S. Karvatska
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
General Rule ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Icj ◽  
The Law ◽  
Text Context ◽  
Advisory Opinions

The article is devoted to the analysis of the nature, essence and mechanism of the application of travaux preparatoires by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the process of interpreting the international law. It is proved that the interpretational practice of the ICJ shows the extension of the doctrinal approaches of the traditional perception of travaux preparatoires as an auxiliary tool. It has been established that the ICJ uses travaux preparatoires 1 to identify the intent of the legislator; 2 to provide advisory opinions; 3 to clarify the intentions of the parties to the treaty; 4) to determine the jurisdiction of the ICJ; 5) to identify the true intentions of the parties to the dispute; 6) to decide questions regarding the text, context, purpose and object of the treaty as a general rule of interpretation, fixed in Art. 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969.

Reflections on the Territorial and Maritime Dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia before the International Court of Justice

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 909-931 ◽  
Author(s):  
YOSHIFUMI TANAKA
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Icj ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact

AbstractOn 19 November 2012, the International Court of Justice gave its judgment concerning the Territorial and Maritime Dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia. This judgment includes several important issues which need serious consideration, such the as legal status of maritime features, the interpretation and application of Article 121 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the methodology of maritime delimitations, the role of proportionality in maritime delimitations, and the impact of the judgment upon third states and effect of Article 59 of the ICJ Statute. Focusing on these issues, this contribution aims to analyse the judgment of 2012 from a viewpoint of the international law of the sea, in particular, the law of maritime delimitation.

Part I The Human Rights Mandate of the Principal Organs, 4 The International Court of Justice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simma Bruno
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Icj ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Advisory Opinions

This chapter evaluates the International Court of Justice, which is one of the United Nation’s principal Charter bodies, and its principal judicial organ. As such, it hears cases brought by states against others and can render advisory opinions sought by certain organs of the UN and international organizations authorised to do so, both of which bear on a wide range of international legal issues. The ICJ is not specifically a human rights body, but its jurisprudence may have, indeed has had, an impact on international human rights law. The chapter then looks at the interpretation and application of human rights by the ICJ. It also assesses the linkage of the Court and human rights, identifying two phases in the engagement of the Court with human rights matters.

scholarly journals Barcelona Traction at 40: The ICJ as an Agent of Legal Development

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 781-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTIAN J. TAMS ◽  
ANTONIOS TZANAKOPOULOS
Keyword(s):  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Legal Development ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Icj ◽  
The Law ◽  
Lasting Influence

AbstractThe article revisits the Barcelona Traction judgment of the International Court of Justice, rendered forty years ago. It evaluates the lasting influence of the Court's pronouncements on the nationality of corporations and on obligations erga omnes, and uses the case to illustrate the Court's role as an influential agent of legal development. In this respect, it identifies a number of factors that can help to explain under which circumstances judicial pronouncements are likely to shape the law.

The Saint Vincent and the Grenadines v. Guinea M/V Saiga Cases

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-564
Author(s):  
Barbara Kwiatkowska
Keyword(s):  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Careful Attention ◽  
International Tribunal ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Icj ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Law

The article surveys the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines v. Guinea M/V Saiga cases which inaugurated jurisprudence of the 21 Member International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg, Germany, with delivery of two important decisions on prompt release of the vessel and its crew (1997, Case No. 1) and on provisional measures of protection (1998, Case No. 2). The decisions provided precedential instances of application by the Tribunal of Articles 292 and 290 of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea respectively, and of the relevant provisions of the ITLOS Rules. The prescription of provisional measures of protection formed the incidental proceedings of the pending M/V Saiga (Merits) case which is to be settled by ITLOS in mid-1999 (Case No. 2) and is to be the subject of a separate article. In view of the ITLOS Statute and the Rules being closely modelled in the Statute and the Rules of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), careful attention is given to comparison of the inaugural practice of ITLOS with the longstanding practice of the ICJ, and preservation of judicial consistency by ITLOS is particularly commended. A history of the M/V Saiga dispute, intertwined with domestic proceedings before Guinean courts, is for the reader's convenience outlined in a Chronological Table annexed to this article.

Forum Prorogatum Returns to the International Court of Justice

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
SIENHO YEE
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
National Interests ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
General Acceptance ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Peaceful Settlement ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Icj

The ICJ interpreted Article 36(1) of its Statute – more specifically, the phrase ‘all cases which the parties refer to it’ – as permitting it to adopt the doctrine of forum prorogatum as a jurisdictional principle and to adapt this doctrine to the circumstances of international judicial process, as an informal way of founding its jurisdiction over the merits of a dispute. The resort to this doctrine has given rise to some concerns and has not received the general acceptance of states. The Certain Criminal Proceedings in France case marks the successful return of the doctrine to the ICJ and shows that the doctrine is a valuable tool for nationalists seeking to protect national interests and for internationalists seeking to promote the peaceful settlement of international disputes.

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