Published: 2020-11-26

Identification of Customary International Law in the ICJ Advisory Opinion Concerning the Chagos Archipelago

Agata Kleczkowska
Zeszyty Prawnicze
Section: Artykuły
https://doi.org/10.21697/zp.2020.20.3.01

Abstract

In February 2019 the ICJ issued an advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965. The aim of this article is to analyze the methodology which allowed the ICJ to identify the provisions of the customary international law regulating the right to self-determination, which then became the grounds for the ICJ decision. This study is focused on the fourth part of the advisory opinion, namely “The questions put to the Court by the General Assembly.” The article argues that the method the Court used to identify custom for the purposes of this opinion differs significantly from the way it has examined customary international law so far, due to its application of several points, especially the exclusive role it assigns to the resolutions of the UN General Assembly. The article is divided into four parts. The first part briefly discusses the most important points of the ICJ’s considerations concerning customary international law. The second part compares the ICJ’s methodology used so far with its considerations in the advisory opinion on the Chagos Archipelago. The third part shows how the ICJ presented the formation of custom in this advisory opinion. The fourth part concerns the UN General Assembly’s Resolution 1514.

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Kleczkowska, A. (2020). Identification of Customary International Law in the ICJ Advisory Opinion Concerning the Chagos Archipelago. Zeszyty Prawnicze, 20(3), 7–33. https://doi.org/10.21697/zp.2020.20.3.01

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