World Court Digest

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I.	Substantive International Law - First Part
7.	LAW OF TREATIES
7.8.	Interpretation

¤ Case Concerning Sovereignty over
Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan
(Indonesia v. Malaysia)
Application by the Philippines
for Permission to Intervene
Judgment of 23 October 2001

[p. 596] 47. The Court must first consider whether the terms of Article 62 of the Statute preclude, in any event, an “interest of a legal nature” of the State seeking to intervene in anything other than the operative decision of the Court in the existing case in which the intervention is sought. The English text of Article 62 refers in paragraph 1 to “an interest of a legal nature which may be affected by the decision in the case”. The French text for its part refers to “un intérêt d’ordre juridique ... en cause” for the State seeking to intervene. The word “decision” in the English version of this provision could be read in a narrower or a broader sense. However, the French version clearly has a broader meaning. Given that a broader reading is the one which would be consistent with both language versions and bearing in mind that this Article of the Statute of the Court was originally drafted in French, the Court concludes that this is the interpretation to be given to this provision. Accordingly, the interest of a legal nature to be shown by a State seeking to intervene under Article 62 is not limited to the dispositif alone of a judgment. It may also relate to the reasons which constitute the necessary steps to the dispositif.

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