Chapter 6 - International means of disputes settlement

Question 1

What was gunboat diplomacy?

Answer 1

The use or threat of force in interstate relations that was common until the first part of the 20th century.
Precedes the current status of dispute settlement.

Question 2

Diplomatic settlement of disputes

Answer 2

• negotiations
• good offices
• mediation
• conciliation
• inquiry

Question 3

The obligation for keeping a peaceful mean of dispute settlement was considered customary law until…

Answer 3

Until it was restated and developed first by the 1970 Declaration of on principles of international law concerning friendly relations and cooperation among states.

and secondly, through the 1982 Manila declaration on the peaceful declaration of international disputes.

Question 4

An international legal dispute is..

Answer 4

One between states (or states and intergovernmental organizations) governed by international law.
That is an important distinction as there are other kinds of international disputes (handled by municipal law)

Question 5

What was decided in the first ICJ south west Africa cases?

Answer 5

In this dispute there was a dispute between Ethiopia and Liberia against south Africa.
The ICJ stressed that for there to be a dispute it is not adequate to show that the interests of the two parties are in conflict.
It must be shown that the claim of one party is positively opossed to the other’s.

Question 6

What is the precedent set in the 2005 case between Germany and Lichtenstein (The certain property case)

Answer 6

The ICJ noted that the “complaints of fact and law formulated by Lichtenstein against Germany were denied by the latter”
In order to conclude that by virtue of this denial there Is a legal dispute between Lichtenstein and Germany.

Question 7

Is explicit opposition a requirement for there to be a dispute?

Answer 7

No. International case law has determined that the existence of a dispute may be inferred from the failure of a state to respond to a claim in circumstances when a response is called for.

Question 8

Two elements are necessary for there to exist an international legal dispute.

Answer 8

1- A disagreement which must be based on a claim by a state that another state has breached or is breaching an international obligation owed to the former state.

2- Such a claim must be opposed or resisted by the latter state.

Question 9

Opposition or resistance are expressed through…

Answer 9

• diplomatic exchanges (notes verbales) denying the charges .
• inferred from the lack of response or continuation of the conduct complained of.