La jurisprudence de la Cour internationale de
Justice. Edited by
Pierre-Michel Eisemann and Photini Pazartzis. Paris:
Editions A. Pedone, 2008. Pp. 1007. € 80,00.
Reviewed by Dr. Karin Oellers-Frahm, Max Planck Institute
for Comparative Public Law and International Law.
The jurisprudence of the
International Court of Justice gains more and more importance, in particular
because, not only are so called “secondary” cases, that is cases of alleged
secondary importance such as delimitation of land or maritime boundaries cases,
brought before it, but rather sensitive
and highly political cases involving questions of use of force and self-defense
as well. Furthermore, the Court is seized with cases involving States of all
parts of the world, which also marks a positive development compared to its
early times. Therefore, the jurisprudence of the ICJ plays a predominant role
in all domains of international law and is of concern not only to those
involved in international law, international relations or international
organizations, but also national lawyers and politicians. The idea, therefore,
of providing the international community with a publication that gives an
overview of the jurisprudence of the ICJ (and thus allows easy access to its
case-law) is to be welcomed.
When the predecessor of the present
publication was presented in 1970, it filled a gap in the publication of
“repertories on the jurisprudence of the ICJ,” which existed already at that
time, but which were mostly published in English. Meanwhile, the jurisprudence
of the ICJ is the subject-matter of a series of publications, however, still
mainly in English. It may suffice here to refer to the publication - in French
- of Brigitte Stern, “20 ans de jurisprudence de la Cour internationale de
Justice, 1975-1995”, as well as to the most important repertories in English,
such as G. Ziccardi-Capaldo’s Repertory of the Decisions of the International
Court of Justice, 1947-1992, and of the Fontes Iuris Gentium Series A, Sectio I
prepared by the Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative Law and International Law,
comprising in several volumes (until 1985 in French and English), the
jurisprudence of the ICJ and the PCIJ. in the form of excerpts of the decisions
compiled under different subject-matters. Since 1985, this publication appears –
only in English -- as World Court Digest and includes succinct descriptions of
the cases. All these and other publications on the ICJ and its jurisprudence –
reference should in any case be made to the significant publications on the ICJ
by S. Rosenne as well as to the Commentary on the Statute of the ICJ (A.
Zimmermann/C. Tomuschat/K. Oellers-Frahm, 2006) – make not only access to the
work of the World Court easy but are most instructive in analyzing and
evaluating the decisions so that the question may arise whether a new
publication will find its place within these traditional publications, in
particular since all decisions are easily available on the Court’s homepage.
One of the advantages of the
present book is the fact that it covers the Court’s jurisdiction up to the year
2007. All decisions, with the exception of merely procedural orders, in all contentious
and advisory cases are presented according to the same pattern. Contentious
cases start with a short exposé of the facts underlying the case, followed by a
summary of the orders and judgments delivered, and also give some indication in
the notes on the implementation of the decision. The same model is followed for
advisory opinions. For each case the composition of the Court is indicated as
well as the names of the judges not following the majority. What is really
helpful for the reader are the bibliographical references for each case which
are very up to date, but are restricted to French and English publications.
These bibliographical references are completed by a general bibliography in the
introductory part of the book as well as by the reproduction of the texts
governing the work and the organization of the ICJ at the end of the book,
allowing thus uncomplicated reference to the relevant articles of the United
Nations Charter, the Statute of the ICJ, its Rules of Procedure, as well as to
its practice directions and the resolution concerning the internal judicial
practice of the Court.
As is stated in the preface, the
authors’ purpose is merely to provide a means of information on the Court’s
decisions as succinctly, but also as faithfully as possible, a purpose which is
reached without any doubt by the excellent presentation of the cases. With this
aim in mind, it is only consequent that the authors abstain from any analysis
or critical appreciation of the cases and simply present the cases as they are
without relating them to the overall jurisprudence of the Court. Consequently,
the reader does not find any indication of whether or for what reasons a change
in the jurisprudence has occurred, or whether the Court takes positions
furthering or preventing the development of international law, or according to
or deviating from general trends in international law. This lack of any guidance
to the reader would be justifiable and could have been compensated by including
the separate and dissenting opinions in the description of the cases. However,
for reasons concerning the handling of the book, these opinions are regrettably
completely omitted. As the aim of the book is the objective presentation of the
cases, at least the main points of argument and criticism in the separate and
dissenting opinions should have been indicated, for only thereby complete and
in fact un-biased information on a case would have been offered. Not only did minority
views turn to majority views thus leading to a change in the Court’s jurisdiction
– reference shall only be made to the question of the jurisdictional link
concerning intervention under Art. 62 of the Statute – but moreover, and more
significantly, they reflect the controversial issues of a case and therefore
allow to better understand the final decision, be it in a contentious case or in
an advisory case. The non-inclusion of at least the essence of these opinions thus
“undermines” to a certain degree the declared aim of the publication, namely to
provide faithful and comprehensive information on the jurisprudence of the ICJ.
Despite this shortcoming, it is
supposed that the compilation of the ICJ cases, which is a common work of
students and professors of the University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, will find
its place in the circles of academics and practitioners when seeking first
information on a particular ICJ-case, however under the caveat that only a look at the separate and dissenting opinions
would provide a reliable picture of the case.
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