Public-Interest Litigation before the International Court of Justice: Comment on The Gambia v. Myanmar Case

Abstract

Abstract The recent Judgment of the International Court of Justice on the Preliminary Objections in The Gambia v. Myanmar case infers the standing of The Gambia to bring claims before the Court from its “common interest” as a State party to the Genocide Convention. This sweeping approach entails risks of subjectivity and over-breadth. A more nuanced approach, taking into account other features of the treaty in question, should be adopted to determine what obligation would warrant the standing of a State to bring a claim before the Court in respect of its breach. In addition, the adversarial structure of the contentious proceedings of the Court and the procedural rules applicable to it are ill-suited to public-interest litigation, and significant reform of the procedural rules of the Court should be made in order to make public-interest litigation more effective before it.