Dean for Medway and Kent Law School professor Nick Grief was at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague this week to hear the Court deliver its judgments in the nuclear disarmament cases brought by the Republic of the Marshall Islands against India, Pakistan and the UK.
Professor Grief is a member of the international legal team representing the Marshall Islands in cases alleging that each State is failing to comply with its obligation under international law to pursue in good faith and conclude negotiations for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.
In all three cases before it on Wednesday, the Court decided that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the merits since no dispute existed between the Marshall Islands and each of the respondent States when the Applications were filed on 24 April 2014.
Commenting on the judgments, Professor Grief said: ‘The Court has departed from its previous case law by introducing a new criterion for determining the existence of a dispute. The implications of this were particularly poignant in the case against the UK, where the 16 judges were divided 8-8 and the outcome turned on the casting vote of the President of the Court. Several judges issued Dissenting Opinions in which they are very critical of the majority decision. More fundamentally, the judgments show that the World Court’s judges are unable to agree on what constitutes a dispute.’
Professor Grief, who practises at the Bar from Doughty Street Chambers where he is an associate tenant, helped draft the RMI’s applications to the ICJ. He also worked on the RMI’s written pleadings and appeared before the ICJ in the oral hearings in March 2016. He will be reflecting on the cases in more detail when he gives the Keith Tucker Memorial Lecture at the University of Kent on Thursday 10 November 2016.
Earlier this year, The Marshall Islands’ legal team, led by the Republic’s former Foreign Minister Tony de Brum, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Secretary-General of the International Peace Bureau Colin Archer.
In addition to teaching Public International Law and EU Law at Kent Law School, Professor Grief has research interests in public international law, especially the legal status of nuclear weapons, air and space law and the domestic implications of international law.