World Court Digest

---

---

III.	The International Court of Justice
3.	THE PROCEDURE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
3.13.	Joinder

¤ Questions of Interpretation and Application
of the 1971 Montreal Convention Arising
from the Aerial Incident at Lockerbie
(Libya v. United Kingdom) Preliminary
Objections, Judgment of 27 February 1998
I.C.J. Reports 1998, p. 9

[pp. 42 J.Decl. Bedjaoui, Guillaume, Ranjeva] There is nevertheless a fundamental objection to this solution, namely that joinder of proceedings and recognition that parties are in the same interest do not obey the same criteria. The purpose of joining proceedings is to let the Court rule on two separate applications in a single judgment. Joinder may be decided upon in cases between the same parties and with the same subject-matter (as in the case concerning the Legal Status of the South-Eastern Territory of Greenland¹). So may it in cases between the same parties but with a different subject-matter (as those concerning Certain German Interests in Polish Upper Silesia² and Appeals from Certain Judgments of the Hungaro/Czechoslovak Mixed Arbitral Tribunal³). Furthermore, joinder of separate proceedings instituted by different States is also possible. It may be effected where the States are parties in the same interest (as in the South West Africa cases). Yet being parties in the same interest does not necessarily imply the joinder of proceedings, particularly if the parties themselves oppose it (as proven by the Fisheries Jurisdiction cases).⁴

1	Orders of 2 and 3 August 1932, P.C.I.J., Series A/B, No. 48, p. 268.
2	Judgment No. 7 of 5 February 1926, P.C.I.J., Series A, No. 7, p. 95.
3	Order of 12 May 1933, P.C.I.J., Series C, No. 68, p. 290.
4	See, mutatis mutandis, Questions of Interpretation and Application of the 1971 Montreal Convention Arising from the Aerial Incident at Lockerbie (Libya v. United States of America), Preliminary Objections, Judgment of 27 February 1998, I.C.J. Reports 1998, 115.

---

---