The Neglected Aspects of the International Court of Justice’s Wall Opinion on the Consequences of Internationally Wrongful Acts

Abstract

A decade ago the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) Advisory Opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s building a wall in the occupied Palestinian territory generated considerable comment. Most of this comment focused on the political ramifications of the Opinion and on the vociferous opposition it met from the United States. Very little, if any, attention has, however, been directed at the ICJ’s reiteration of its findings the Chorzow Factory case in which the court set out the consequences of an internationally illegal act. Scant mention has also been made of how the ICJ applied the International Law Commission’s 2001 Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts in its decision on ‘the Wall’. There appears to be little doubt that since the onset of the twenty-first century, political issues have overshadowed the remarkable way in which the ICJ set out the legal consequences arising from internationally wrongful acts. This note attempts to emphasise the forceful exposition by the ICJ on state responsibility – an exposition deserving far greater attention than it has received to date and which offers an excellent precedent for future decisions on international wrongs committed by one state against another.