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World Court Digest



III. The International Court of Justice
2. THE JURISDICTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
2.2. Conditions for a Decision on the Merits
2.2.2. Necessity of Diplomatic Negotiations

¤ Vienna Convention on Consular Relations
(Paraguay v. United States of America),
Order of 9 April 1998

[p. 255] 23. Whereas on a request for the indication of provisional measures the Court need not, before deciding whether or not to indicate them, finally satisfy itself that it has jurisdiction on the merits of the case, but whereas it may not indicate them unless the provisions invoked by the Applicant appear, prima facie, to afford a basis on which the jurisdiction of the Court might be founded;

24. Whereas Article I of the Optional Protocol, which Paraguay invokes as the basis of jurisdiction of the Court in this case, is worded as follows:

"Disputes arising out of the interpretation or application of the Convention shall lie within the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and may accordingly be brought before the Court by an application made by any party to the dispute being a Party to the present Protocol";

25. Whereas, according to the information communicated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as depositary, Paraguay and the United States are parties to the Vienna Convention and to the Optional Protocol, in each case without reservation;

26. Whereas Articles II and III of the aforementioned Protocol provide that within a period of two months after one party has notified the other of the existence of a dispute, the parties may agree to resort not to the International Court of Justice but to an arbitration tribunal or alternatively first to conciliation; but whereas these Articles

"when read in conjunction with those of Article I and with the Preamble to the Protocols, make it crystal clear that they are not to be understood as laying down a precondition of the applicability of the precise and categorical provision contained in Article I establishing the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court in respect of disputes arising out of the interpretation or application of the Vienna Convention..." (United States Diplomatic and Consular Staff in Tehran, (United States of America v. Iran), Judgment, 24 May 1980, I.C.J. Reports 1980, pp. 25-26);