International court of justice: The position of third parties reconsidered.

This thesis seeks to investigate the impact of the decisions of the International Court of Justice on third parties from the perspective of the general and specific guarantees available for the protection of their interests under the Court's Statute. In the first chapter, the general protection extended to third parties is considered from the viewpoint of the general principle of the relative effect of judicial decisions, their value as building blocks of the Court's jurisprudence and their role as a subsidiary legal source. The second and third chapters are devoted to a critical analysis of the nature, scope, effect and conditions for the operation of the specific third party guarantees, namely, intervention for the purpose of the protection of the interest of a third party and intervention when the construction of a convention is in issue in a pending case. The fourth chapter examines the position of third parties in relation to the Court's advisory jurisdiction by considering the nature and effect of advisory opinions, by defining and identifying "third parties" in the context of the advisory procedure, by assessing the nature and extent of their participation in advisory proceedings and by undertaking a brief empirical survey of the impact of advisory opinions on them. Finally, some of the principal observations are recapitulated and suggestions for improving and strengthening the third party safeguards, which have been explored, are offered. The main conclusion of this study is that in the final analysis the utility of the various third party safeguards considered, lies both in a liberal interpretation of the conditions governing their operation and in full participation by interested parties in contentious and advisory proceedings