Domande riconvenzionali davanti alla Corte internazionale di giustizia: l’ordinanza del 15 novembre 2017 nel caso delle Pretese violazioni di diritti sovrani e spazi marini nel mare dei Caraibi (Nicaragua c. Colombia)

On 15 November 2017, the International Court of Justice issued an order on the admissibility of counter-claims in the case concerning Alleged Violations of Sovereign Rights and Maritime Spaces in the Caribbean Sea (Nicaragua v. Colombia). The present article focuses on the assessment by the Court of the two requirements set by Article 80 of the Rules, i.e. connection and jurisdiction. While the evaluation of connection required the Court to apply the criteria developed in its earlier case-law, the determination of jurisdiction involved an unprecedented problem. In particular, the Court had to assess whether Colombia’s withdrawal from the Pact of Bogotá, which contained the relevant jurisdictional clause, could affect the Court’s jurisdiction with respect to Colombia’s counter-claims. The Pact was still in force when Nicaragua filed its application, but had ceased to be in force when Colombia filed its counter-claims. Relying on an extensive interpretation of the principle set by the Court’s earlier decision in Nottebohm (Liechtenstein v. Guatemala), the majority of the Court held that, since the Pact was in force at the time of the filing of the application, the Court had jurisdiction also with respect to counter-claims. The author examines the legal foundation of this solution, which is ultimately based on the need to ensure the equality of the parties and the unaltered balance of their procedural powers.