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| III. | The International Court of Justice |
| 3. | THE PROCEDURE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE |
| 3.9. | Relevant Facts |
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Land and Maritime Boundary
between Cameroon and Nigeria,
Preliminary Objections, Judgment,
I.C.J. Reports 1998, p. 275
[pp. 317-319] 95. The Court will now turn to Nigeria's sixth preliminary objection which is to the effect that there is no basis for a judicial determination that Nigeria bears international responsibility for alleged frontier incursions.
96. Nigeria contends that the submissions of Cameroon do not meet the standard required by Article 38 of the Rules of Court and general principles of law regarding the adequate presentation of facts on which Cameroon's request is based, including dates, the circumstances and precise locations of the alleged incursions and incidents into and on Cameroonian territory. Nigeria maintains that what Cameroon has presented to the Court does not give Nigeria the knowledge which it needs and to which it is entitled in order to prepare its reply. Similarly, in Nigeria's view, the material submitted is so sparse that it does not enable the Court to carry out fair and effective judicial determination of, or make determination on, the issues of State responsibility and reparation raised by Cameroon. While Nigeria acknowledges that a State has some latitude in expanding later on what it has said in its Application and in its Memorial, Cameroon is said to be essentially restricted in its elaboration to the case as presented in its Application.
97. Cameroon insists that it stated clearly in its pleadings that the facts referred to in order to establish Nigerias responsibility were only of an indicative nature and that it could, where necessary, amplify those facts when it comes to the merits. Cameroon refers to the requirements established in Article 38, paragraph 2, of the Rules and which call for a "succinct" presentation of the facts. It holds that parties are free to develop the facts of the case presented in the application or to render them more precise in the course of the proceedings.
98. The decision on Nigeria's sixth preliminary objection hinges upon the question of whether the requirements which an application must meet and which are set out in Article 38, paragraph 2, of the Rules of Court are met in the present instance. The requirements set out in Article 38, paragraph 2, are that the Application shall "specify the precise nature of the Claim, together with a succinct statement of the facts and grounds an which the Claim is based". The Court notes that "succinct", in the ordinary meaning to be given to this term, does not mean "complete" and neither the context in which the term is used in Article 38, paragraph 2, of the Rules of Court nor the object and purpose of that provision indicate that it should be interpreted in that way. Article 38, paragraph 2, does therefore not preclude later additions to the statement of the facts and grounds on which a claim is based.
99. Nor does Article 38, paragraph 2, provide that the latitude of an applicant State, in developing what it has said in its application is strictly limited, as suggested by Nigeria. That conclusion cannot be inferred from the term "succinct" nor can it be drawn from the Courts pronouncements on the importance of the point of time of the submission of the application as the critical date for the determination of its admissibility; these pronouncements do not refer to the content of applications (Questions of Interpretation and Application of the 1971 Montreal Convention arising from the Aerial Incident at Lockerbie (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya v. United Kingdom), Preliminary Objections, Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1998, p. 26, para. 44; and Questions of Interpretation and Application of the 1971 Montreal Convention arising from the Aerial Incident at Lockerbie (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya v. United States of America), Preliminary Objections, Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1998, p. 130, para. 43). Nor would so narrow an interpretation correspond to the finding of the Court that,
"whilst under Article 40 of its Statute the subject of a dispute brought before the Court shall be indicated, Article 32 (2) of the Rules of Court [today Article 38, paragraph 2] requires the Applicant 'as far as possible' to do certain things. These words apply not only to specifying the provision on which the Applicant founds the jurisdiction of the Court, but also to stating the precise nature of the Claim and giving a succinct statement of the facts and grounds on which the Claim is based." (Northern Cameroons (Cameroon v. United Kingdom), Preliminary Objections, Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1963, p. 28.)
The Court also recalls that it has become an established practice for States submitting an application to the Court to reserve the right to present additional facts and legal considerations. The limit of the freedom to present such facts and considerations is "that the result is not to transform the dispute brought before the Court by the application into another dispute which is different in character" (Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America), Jurisdiction and Admissibility, Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1984, p. 427, para. 80). In this case, Cameroon has not so transformed the dispute.
100. As regards the meaning to be given to the term "succinct", the Court would simply note that Cameroon's Application contains a sufficiently precise statement of the facts and grounds on which the Applicant bases its claim. That statement fulfils the conditions laid down in Article 38, Paragraph 2, and the Application is accordingly admissible.
This observation does not, however, prejudge the question whether, taking account of the information submitted to the Court, the facts alleged by the Applicant are established or not, and whether the grounds it relies upon are founded or not. Those questions belong to the merits and may not be prejudged in this phase of the proceedings.
101. Lastly, the Court cannot agree that the lack of sufficient clarity and completeness in Cameroon's Application and its inadequate character, as perceived by Nigeria, make it impossible for Nigeria to respond effectively to the allegations which have been presented or makes it impossible for the Court ultimately to make a fair and effective determination in the light of the arguments and the evidence then before it. lt is the applicant which must bear the consequences of an application that gives an inadequate rendering of the facts and grounds on which the claim is based. As the Court has stated in the case concerning Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America):
"[u]ltimately ... however, it is the litigant seeking to establish a fact who bears the burden of proving it; and in cases where evidence may not be forthcoming, a submission may in the judgment be rejected as unproved, but is not to be ruled out as inadmissible in limine on the basis of an anticipated lack of proof." (Ibid., p. 437, para. 101.)
[p. 412 D.O. Ajibola] While it is true that Cameroon sufficiently specified the legal grounds upon which its Applications are based, it has, however, failed to specify adequately the precise nature of the claim or to provide a "succinct statement of the facts and grounds on which the claim is based".
For Cameroon to invoke Nigeria's international responsibility and consequent obligation to make reparation, it is not enough for Cameroon to make general and unsubstantiated statements about incidents. Cameroon must supply full particulars of the place, the time and the nature of the alleged incidents, and also make it clear precisely how these were serious enough to call into question Nigeria's international responsibility as recognized by international law.
