RIYADH, 20 January — The proliferation of international tribunals, while creating channels for the settlement of inter-state disputes, could result in a conflict if two international tribunals deliver opposing verdicts.
This view was expressed by Gilbert Guillaume, president of the International Court of Justice, who was speaking on the "Role of the International Court of Justice" at the Institute of Diplomatic Studies here yesterday.
Pointing out that ICJ is not the only court for international arbitration, Guillaume said the European Court of Human Rights and various other tribunals have entered the field. This has led to overlapping of jurisdiction as a result of which contradictory decisions are reached.
He cited the case of the International Tribunal on Yugoslavia that contradicted the ICJ ruling on human rights abuses in former Yugoslavia. Similarly, in the case of the dispute between Chile and EU over Sweden’s fish stock, one party sought to bring up the dispute before the international tribunal dealing with maritime disputes, while the other side preferred the WTO.
"Every judicial institution tends to go its own separate way. Sometimes the verdict they arrive at is also not honored," the ICJ chief said, adding that the US-Nicaragua dispute was a case in point, in which the US did not implement the decision of ICJ.
He pointed out that the end of the cold war and the presence of several specialized international tribunals have provided the international community with several channels for seeking settlement of their disputes. It had also at the same time increased their workload. The ICJ currently had a docket of 23 different cases submitted by various states. It had therefore become necessary to streamline its method of functioning for speedy disposal of cases.
Asked about the presence of specialized international tribunals, Guillaume said such a plurality was dictated by the diverse nature of the dispute.
"A good example is the setting up of the World Trade Organization in which you have to consider highly technical problems relating to trade. So it’s quite natural that such problems should be referred to a specialized body."
The ICJ president said the problem is not so much the creation of those bodies as ensuring that international law is applied in the same way by all the tribunals and bodies in the domestic system.
In reply to another question, he said it is not possible for the court to pronounce its verdict in absentia, since both parties to a dispute should present their respective case for adjudication.
The main problem, according to Guillaume, is that all the states do not apply the same conventions. This makes the task of interpretation rather difficult. This may cause a tribunal to suspend its judgement and seek the verdict of the ICJ.
He said that in the final analysis every legal dispute has a political aspect to it. This explains why the states balk at accepting verdicts when there are 273 treaties that provide for the jurisdiction of the ICJ in the settlement of disputes. Moreover, only 62 member states of the UN have accepted the jurisdiction of the ICJ. In the interest of the international community it is desirable that all member states should accept ICJ as a forum for resolving international disputes.
Asked on what basis the ICJ delivered its verdict in the Bahrain-Qatar dispute in which both sides claimed victory, Guillaume said it had to do with the interpretation of the maritime law by both sides. The ICJ, of course, had ruled that Bahrain should exercise sovereignty over the disputed Hawar islands. At the same time, there was an element of flexibility in the law, which each side interpreted in the light of its own political interest. "Thus we gave a verdict which was welcomed by both sides."
In reply to a question on the impact of Islam on international jurisprudence, Guillaume said it was instrumental in inspiring some humanitarian aspects of the international law. Moreover, ICJ has on its panel two Muslim judges who rely on Islamic jurisprudence or traditions in different systems when it comes to dealing with humanitarian and other issues.
