‘Small nation can bring a great power to ICJ’

A smaller nation can drag the powerful ones before the ICJ through numerous multi-lateral conventions despite influential nations not accepting its jurisdiction, the court’s vice-president, Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, told The Indian Express.

The statement assumes significance in the context of lawsuits filed at the ICJ in April 2014 by the Republic of Marshall Islands against nine nuclear-armed nations, including India, for “not fulfilling their obligations with respect to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date”. Last month, lawyers representing the Marshall Islands began legal proceedings against India, Pakistan and the UK at the court. These three countries have contended that the claim is beyond the jurisdiction of the court.

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Asked about about the effectiveness of the court in resolving international disputes when influential nations had not submitted to its jurisdiction, ICJ Vice President Yusuf from Somalia said, “You have to keep in mind that all these great powers are also parties to more than 354 multilateral conventions, which contain compromissory clauses, and therefore if there is a dispute… and they are both parties to a multilateral convention and that multilateral convention contains a compromissory clause, that small nation can bring the great power here.”