Reservations to Unilateral Declaration Accepting the Jurisdiction of International Court of Justice (Andrey Velichkovsky)

Раздел - "Международное право", рубрика - "Международные судебные учреждения"The article examines the reservations to the acceptance of compulsory jurisdiction included in declarations made by States under Article 36(2) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice and discusses the practical application by the Court of the principle of reciprocity to such reservations in contentious cases. It has been considered that, due to acceptance conditioned by so many, diverse, and complicated reservations, the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court has been declining in significance. The recent trend of acceptance of the compulsory jurisdiction does not support such a conclusion. As of the end of 2001, 64 declarations of acceptance were in effect (in 1991 s 54 declarations). Since the practice of making declarations with reservations has continued, further study of the Court's jurisprudence in dealing with such reservations seems necessary. This article attempts to show that reservations in unilateral declarations do not necessarily contribute to the decline of the compulsory jurisdiction. In fact, reservations quite often provide for the flexibility which many States consider essential in accepting the jurisdiction of the Court. Thus, the right to include a variety of reservations in unilateral declarations may in fact contribute to the wider acceptance of compulsory jurisdiction. On the basis of the analysis of the Court's practice in considering reservations to declarations of acceptance of the compulsory jurisdiction and in applying the principle of reciprocity with respect to those eservations, the article evaluates the practical significance, usefulness and effectiveness of different types of reservations and draws some conclusions as to the necessity and desirability of including them in declarations of acceptance