The ICJ judgment on Nicaragua v Colombia (2022): applying an established jurisdictional test or a problematic invention?

Abstract

In April 2022, the ICJ pronounced its judgments on the merits in Alleged Violations of Sovereign Rights and Maritime Spaces in the Caribbean Sea (Nicaragua v Colombia). While the judgment makes interesting contributions to the law of the sea jurisprudence, the Court’s problematic finding on jurisdiction ratione temporis is the subject of this paper. Applying what it refers to as ‘continuity’ and ‘connexity’ criteria, it found that Colombia’s withdrawal from the Pact of Bogotá would not prevent it from considering facts submitted by Nicaragua which arose after the Pact ceased to be in force for Colombia. An in-depth analysis of the jurisprudence the judgment referred to reveals that the Court was building on convoluted cases, some of which have conflated questions of jurisdiction and admissibility. Based on the Court’s jurisprudence, this paper argues for a more systematic approach to dealing with preliminary issues arising from new claims and submissions.