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The Nicaragua Case: ‘Mafiosi's’ and ‘Veteran's’ Approaches Combined

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2012

ALAIN PELLET
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Abstract

This presentation is twofold. The first part shows that the Nicaragua case played a significant role in reconciling the Third World with the International Court of Justice and, more generally, in revitalizing the Court. In the second part, the author, who was counsel for Nicaragua in that case, casts an eye as external analyst on the judgments of 1984, about which he has some reluctance, and 1986, which he largely approves of, even though Nicaragua did not win 100 per cent and some points may be debatable.

Keywords

ICJjudicial settlement of disputejudicial strategynon-appearancestate responsibility
Type
HAGUE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS: International Court of Justice: Symposium: The Nicaragua Case 25 Years Later
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 481 - 489
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2012

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References

1 See http://londonersdiary.standard.co.uk/2011/06/le-long-lunch-is-a-crucial-issue-in-the-hague.html or http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/8556321/Hay-Festival-day-nine-as-it-happened.html.

2 This speech was delivered in French. The author is grateful to Olivia Nederlandt and Catherine Harwood, students from the Leiden LL M advanced programme on Public International Law, for their assistance with the translations.

3 Halberstam, D., The Best and the Brightest (1972)Google Scholar.

4 This disrespectful appellation was used by the late Sir Ian Brownlie to design the small group of lawyers used to plead before the ICJ.

5 In fact, I was asked to make two different presentations, which have been merged into one on request of the editors of this special issue of this journal. Moreover, I had prepared the second one but, the format having changed, I had no occasion on which to formally deliver it.

6 See the excellent play by J. Jouet, Mitterrand et Sankara (1998).

7 Nine if one adds the recent application (made on 22 December 2011) against Costa Rica with regard to ‘violations of Nicaraguan sovereignty and major environmental damages to its territory’.

8 Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America), Pleadings of 10 October 1984, [1984] ICJ Rep. 141, Vol. III.

9 Ibid., Vol. V, at 236.

10 Ibid., Vol. III, at 283.

11 This section reproduces the text of the author's draft, which was not delivered that way, for the fourth panel of the conference.

12 [1984] ICJ Rep. 562.

13 See ibid., at 398, para. 13, and at 415–21, paras. 52–66.

14 Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the United States and Nicaragua, [1984] ICJ Rep. 427, paras. 81–84.

15 [1986] ICJ Rep. 42, para. 68.

16 Ibid., at 43, para. 70.

17 Application of the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), [2007] ICJ Rep. 130, para. 213.

18 Case Concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo v. Uganda), [2005] ICJ Rep. 201, para. 61.

19 [2007] ICJ Rep. 56, paras. 37–43.

20 [1986] ICJ Rep. 64, para. 115.

21 Ibid., at 62, para. 110.

22 Ibid., at 65, para. 116.

23 Ibid., at 188–9, paras. 16, 17.

24 Application of the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), [2007] ICJ Rep. 207, paras. 398–407; see also Case Concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo, [2005] ICJ Rep. 226, para. 160.