An Inquiry Whether the International Court of Justice Has Found the Right
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An Inquiry whether the International Court of Justice has found the right application of article 62 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties – Fundamental Change of Circumstances? Written by Peter Szilvasi LLM. Candidate, supervised by Dr. I. Heko Scheltema, at The University of Amsterdam, for the course LLM. in European Union and Public International Law 2015 Word count: 13.990 Student number: 10866523 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................................ i INDEX OF AUTHORITIES .................................................................................................................................iii ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE THESIS ........................................................................................................ vii KEYWORDS ...................................................................................................................................................... vii ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................................................viii INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................. 1 1. CIRCUMSTANCES CONCERNING THE DRAFTING OF ARTICLE 62 AND INHERENT PROBLEMS ...... 3 1.1 Legal status of article 62 – the lex lata ...................................................................... 3 1.2 Content and cumulative requirements of application ................................................ 6 1.3 Debate over the inclusion of the rebus doctrine in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties ..................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Interpretation of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties .............................. 9 1.5 The meaning of ‘fundamental’ ................................................................................. 10 2. PROBLEMS ARISING FROM THE APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 62 ......................................................... 12 2.1 Analysis of the second requirement of article 62 - Fisheries Jurisdiction case: restrictive interpretation of ‘fundamental’ change ......................................................... 12 2.2 Vital Interests ........................................................................................................... 15 2.3 Terminological difference regarding the nature of ‘change’ ................................... 15 2.4 Application of article 62 contravenes the intention of the drafters .......................... 16 2.5 Analysis of the fifth requirement of article 62 through the Dutch-Suriname Treaty on Development Assistance ............................................................................... 17 2.6 An alternative approach to the ‘extent of obligations’ criteria – serious violation of international human rights law .................................................... 20 i 3. LACK OF CONSENSUS OVER POLITICAL CHANGE, ITS CONSEQUENCES IN APPLICATION, AND INSUFFICIENT CONSIDERATION OF CLAIMS BY THE ICJ ............................................................... 22 3.1 Debate within the International Law Commission over political changes .............. 22 3.2 Insufficient consideration of political change - the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros case .... 24 3.3 Judgements of the ICJ lack proper evaluation of article 62 claims ......................... 25 4. STATE PRACTICE CONFLICTS THE INTERPRETATION OF THE ICJ .................................................... 27 4.1 Application of article 62 by the ICJ excludes it to be 'an instrument of peaceful change' and disregards military-strategic realities ........................................... 27 4.2 France’s withdrawal from the NATO Treaty and termination of bilateral agreements with the US ................................................................................................. 27 4.3 Unilateral termination of the ABM Treaty by the USA........................................... 30 5. CONCLUDING REMARKS .......................................................................................................................... 34 ii INDEX OF AUTHORITIES International Treaties and related documents: Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems 1972 (ABM Treaty) <http://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/abm/abm2.html> accessed 10 July 2015 Charter of the United Nations (adopted 24 October 1945, entered into force 24 September 1973 – last amendment) 1 UNTS XVI Cooperation agreement between the European Economic Community and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Agreement between the Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Coal and Steel Community, of the one part, and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, of the other part. Final act. Signed in Belgrade on 2 April 1980 <http://aei.pitt.edu/41150/1/A4827.pdf> accessed 28 July 2015 Geneva Convention on the Law of the Sea (adopted 29 April 1958, entered into force 10 September 1964) A/CONF.13/L.58, 1958, UNCLOS, Official Records 2 146 Statute of the International Court of Justice (adopted 26 June 1945, entered into force 24 October 1945) 33 UNTS 993 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (adopted 23 May 1969, entered into force 27 January 1980) 1155 UNTS 331 Memorandum of Understanding on Succession to the ABM Treaty 1997 <http://fas.org/nuke/control/abmt/docs/97092616_wpo.html> accessed 20 May 2015 Overeenkomst tussen het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden en de Republiek Suriname 1975 <http://www.suriname.nu/101alg/uitleveringsverdragnederlandsuriname.html> accessed 05 May 2015 Documents of, and related to the work of the International Law Commission: A/CN.4/SR.694 Summary record of the 694th meeting (Extract from the Yearbook of the International Law Commission (1963) 1 A/CN.4/SR.695 Summary record of the 695th meeting (Extract from the Yearbook of the International Law Commission (1963) 1 A/CN.4/SR.696 Summary record of the 696th meeting (Extract from the Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1963) 1 A/CN.4/SR.697 Summary record of the 697th meeting (Extract from the Yearbook of the International Law Commission (1963) 1 ILC 1957 Draft Articles on the Law of Treaties with Commentaries: Article 19 Termination or suspension by operation of law. Case of fundamental breach of the treaty (conditions and limitations of application) Yearbook of the International Law Commission (1957) 2 31 ILC 1963 Draft Articles on the Law of Treaties with Commentaries, Yearbook of the International Law Commission (1963) 2 A/CN.4/163 209 ILC 1966 Draft Articles on the Law of Treaties with Commentaries, Yearbook of the International Law Commission (1966) 2 A/CN.4/SER.A/1966/Add.1 259 Reports of the International Law Commission to the General Assembly Yearbook of the International Law Commission (1966) 2 258 iii Special Rapporteur, GG Fitzmaurice, ‘Second Report on the Law of Treaties’ in Yearbook of the International Law Commission (1957) 2 A/CN.4/SER.A/1957/Add.1 56 Special Rapporteur Waldock, ‘Second Report on the Law of Treaties’ in Yearbook of the International Law Commission (1963) 2 A/CN.4/SER.A/1963/ADD.1 83 Website of the International Law Commission “Origin and background” <http://legal.un.org/ilc/ilcintro.shtml> accessed 7 May 2015 Case law: Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Croatia v Serbia) ICJ Reports 2007 60 Avena and other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v United States of America) ICJ Reports 2004 48 A. Racke GmbH & Co. v Hauptzollamt Mainz Case C-162/96 ECR-I 3655 Case concerning the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary/Slovakia), Judgment, 25 September 1997, ICJ Reports 1997 7 Case of the Free Zones of Upper Savoy and the district of Gex 1932 PCIJ 156-158 <http://www.icj- cij.org/pcij/serie_AB/AB_46/01_Zones_franches_Arret.pdf> accessed 10 June 2015 Dissenting Opinion of Judge Luis Padilla Nervo, Fisheries Jurisdiction (United Kingdom v. Iceland), Order of the Court ICJ Reports 1973 20 Dissenting Opinion of Judge Luis Padilla Nervo, Fisheries Jurisdiction (United Kingdom v. Iceland), Jurisdiction of the Court ICJ Reports 1973 37 Fisheries Jurisdiction (United Kingdom v. Iceland), Jurisdiction of the Court, Judgment, ICJ Reports 1973 3 LaGrand Case (Germany v United States of America) ICJ Reports 2001 501 Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Advisory Opinion) ICJ Reports 2004 174 Nationality Decrees Issued in Tunisia and Morocco, PCIJ, Series B, no. 4, 29 Official documents of National archives: A Statement Made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 13, 2001, Regarding the Decision of the Administration of the United States of America to Withdraw from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 <http://www.state.gov/t/isn/10527.htm> accessed 20 May 2015 Exchange of Notes Setting the Fisheries Dispute between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the Government of Iceland, UKTS 17 (1961) <http://treaties.fco.gov.uk/docs/pdf/1961/TS0017.pdf> accessed 14 May 2015 Government of Iceland’s aide-mémoire of 31 August 1971, Annex C to United Kingdom Application, Annex 14 <http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/55/9409.pdf> accessed 28 July 2015 Overeenkomst tussen het Koninkrijk der