Conclusions
The impact that scientific or technical issues may have on a dispute before an international court or tribunal varies considerably according to the circumstances. Let us suppose that a dispute between two States turns on whether one of them has produced more than an allowed quantity of enriched uranium. An international court or tribunal to...
Science in inter-State arbitration: What could be there between deference and distrust?
1. Introduction Science enters inter-State arbitration in various ways in environmental disputes, which are notoriously closely tied to complex scientific facts. The epistemic authority of scientific knowledge may induce two main types of reactions from international adjudicators hearing such disputes. Panels may either acknowledge the cognitive authority of scientific knowledge, which may invite affording deference...
Consulting the science in World Trade Organization dispute settlement: Structured for trust
1. Introduction International courts’ and tribunals’ interaction with science has been the focus of a growing body of scholarship from diverse perspectives in recent years.[1] As Katalin Sulyok has observed, dispute settlement in the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been regarded as the most ‘science intensive’ practice in the international arena, relying, when needed, on...
The role of science and expert evidence in the ICJ’s Silala judgment: How Bolivia’s incoherent claims ran up against reality
1. Introduction The International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s 2022 Silala judgment is surely one of the most curious that the Court has ever handed down.[1] The judgment represents perhaps the first time ever that the Court has decided that the claims of one of the parties, in this case Bolivia, had changed so much over...
The collective dimension of bilateral litigation: The Ukraine v Russia case before the ICJ
1. Introduction The ‘special military operation’ launched by Russia against Ukraine on 24 February 2022 – which according to international law amounts to an act of aggression[1] – provides the factual background for at least two interstate disputes that Ukraine has brought before the International Court of Justice (‘ICJ’ or ‘the Court’) and the European...
The conflict in Ukraine and the hurdles of collective action
1. Introduction Several months after the launching of the Russian ‘special military operation’ of 24 February 2022[1] and the ensuing devastation in Ukraine, it is still hard to grasp what collective action can be organized within the international community to stop the conflict and restore international peace and security. The idea of a ‘collective’ reaction...
What room for collective reaction to the aggression against Ukraine?
Introduced by Marco Pertile As has been the case for every major crisis involving manifest violations of the ius ad bellum in recent decades, the conflict in Ukraine has brought to the surface some existential questions for international law. From the Kosovo crisis in 1999, to the Iraqi war in 2003 or even to the...
Les conséquences de l’élévation du niveau de la mer sur les frontières terrestres et maritimes
1. Introduction L’élévation du niveau de la mer de trente centimètres à un mètre d’ici la fin du siècle, selon le rapport du Groupe I du GIEC publié en août 2021, entrainera un recul du trait de côte de nombreux Etats tout autour du globe[1]. Le phénomène sera aggravé par le fait, également souligné par...
Culture overboard! The climate shift of international cultural heritage law in the face of rising sea levels
1. Introduction: Addressing sea level rise through the lens of climate change Sea level rise is, in the current context of climate emergency, a slow and continuous phenomenon, sometimes hardly noticed by coastal populations, if not for the disappearance of the dunes or the erosion of the coasts that accompany it. The relative discretion of...
Human Rights of People Living in States Threatened by Climate Change
1. Introduction Sea level rise is a dramatic phenomenon of growing concern to the international community, as it will directly affect some 70 coastal and island States and indirectly affect almost all States due to problems arising from increased migration and lack of natural resources.[1] This is clear from the last IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on...
