Dominica Brings ICJ Case Against Switzerland

The ICJ has a new case.



Today the Commonwealth of Dominica brought a case against Switzerland to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), principal judicial organ of the United Nations, concerning alleged violations by Switzerland of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as well as of other international instruments and rules, with respect to a diplomatic envoy of Dominica to the United Nations in Geneva.



The basic dispute is over whether someone accredited to UN agencies and other international organizations can have his diplomatic accreditation withdrawn by the host country (in this case Switzerland). This sounds complicated and it is. Interestingly, U.S. caselaw will likely be relevant here, since there has been numerous litigations over U.N. diplomatic accreditation and U.S. diplomatic accreditation.



While complicated, the stakes here hardly seems worth the litigation effort by Dominica, a Caribbean island nation of only 70,000. But maybe this is a sign that countries now see the ICJ as a plausible dispute resolution tribunal, even for relatively small disputes. Or maybe Dominica got some bad legal advice…