I. Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Cango v Belgium), Preliminary Objections and Merits, Judgment of 14 February 2002
On declining to make an order for provisional measures in the case concerning the Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000, the International Court of Justice nevertheless indicated that it was desirable that the Court should deal with the issues raised by the case ‘as soon as possible’, and that it was appropriate therefore to seek to determine the application ‘with all expedition’.1 In the event, questions of admissibility and the merits were taken together and the Parties agreed to file a single set of written pleadings each, enabling the Court to hold oral hearings in October 2001 and to render a final judgment on 14 February 20022 (ie, only about 16 months after the original application by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)). Despite the speed with which the Court dealt with the case, its judgment has come in for considerable comment and criticism from a number of quarters3 as much for what is not said, as for what is in fact contained in the rather spare terms of the judgment. It will be suggested here that the ratio decidendi of the case is in fact rather confined, and that caution should be adopted in seeking to draw wider implications from what was said or left unsaid.