Problem The journey of the Ukraine v. Russia (Allegations of Genocide) dispute has generated much controversy as to perceived and real shifts in the ICJ’s approach. Let’s dissect this further. In its Provisional Measures (PM) Order of 16 March 2022, the ICJ, based on what has been characterised its ‘manipulative reasoning’, went so far as to order Russia to ‘immediately suspend [its] military operations’, by accepting the ‘surprisingly creative argument’ of Ukraine and its ‘creative use of seising a Court’. In contrast, in the Preliminary Objections (PO) Judgment of 2 February 2024, the ICJ ‘killed Ukraine’s creative argument’. While the ICJ confirmed its jurisdiction on the first aspect of the dispute (i.e., whether Ukraine committed genocide), it denied its ratione materiae jurisdiction on the second aspect of the dispute (i.e., whether the use of force by Russia has any legal basis under the Genocide Convention). Considering the different conditions applicable to these two procedures, and the…
Provisional Measures
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Evaluating Security Assistance to Israel Following ICJ Provisional Measures Order
The provisional measures order recently published by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the ongoing dispute between South Africa and Israel has widely been characterized as a warning to States that they risk violating the order and eventually being held complicit in genocide for continuing to provide security assistance to Israel.
Ukraine’s ICJ Provisional Measures: A Narrow Path to Remedies
On February 2, the International Court of Justice dealt Ukraine’s case against Russia under the Genocide Convention a heavy blow when it dismissed the majority of the claims for lack of jurisdiction. The decision effectively transformed the case into one about whether Ukraine violated international law (by committing genocide), a far cry from…
“Not All Scripts Come with One Voice”: Variations in State Responses to South Africa v Israel
This post examines responses to the ICJ 26 January Order on provisional measures (‘Order’) in South Africa v Israel by States in the West that regularly claim to subscribe to a so-called “rules-based international order”, a concept coined to replace the much more precise concept of international law, explained to the point by John Dugard…
When the Reasons are More Telling than the Ruling: The Order of the ICJ in South Africa v. Israel
A veil of discontent wraps the order of the ICJ of January 26. The Court disappointed those who consider that the determination prima facie of the violation of the Genocide Convention should have logically entailed the more radical measure of the cessation of military actions, as in the Ukraine v. Russia case; they presented the operative part of…