1. What are the diplomatic methods used for peaceful settlement of an international dispute? Which method do you think is the most effective? 

2. How effective is arbitration as a form of dispute settlement? 

3. What is the jurisdiction of the ICJ? 

QUESTIONS 

1. What does the UN Charter say about the use of force by one state against another? 

2. When can one state act in self-defence? 

3. Livchester is a state. Last week, a group of unknown men went into the territory of Livchester and carried out a series of attacks on various government agencies’ buildings. Many lives were lost in these attacks. A group of terrorists claimed responsibility for those attacks. Livchester believed that the terrorist group is based in the state of Manerpool. The leaders of Manerpool however refuse to give cooperation to Livchester. Livchester decides to launch an armed attack against Manerpool. 

Discuss the legality of the attack if it takes place.

4. When can humanitarian intervention be carried out?

a.      Operation Provide Comfort (US) / Operation Haven (UK)

Initiated by the US and headed by the UK in Iraq from 1991-to 1996 due to the Gulf War (where Kuwait was occupied and invaded by the Iraqi Army)

ii. The purpose of this intervention was to protect Kurdish refugees who were fleeing their homes in northern Iraq during the aftermath of the Gulf War

 iii. The interveners entered the war zone and cleared the area of any threats in order to assist the Kurdish refugees to return to their homes safely. 

b.      United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) 

Established by the UN Security Council Resolution 872 during the Rwandan Civil War in 1993-1994. (Note: The war occurred between the Hutu and Tutsi population. It involved the Rwandan Armed Forces (the government) and the rebels (Rwandan Patriotic Front))

 ii. The UNAMIR was infamously known for its failure to provide adequate support to minimise the number of casualties in the genocide during the Rwandan Civil War, which involved the death of approximately 800,000 - 1.000,000 people.

c. 2011 Military intervention in Libya

Led by NATO pursuant to the 1973 UN Security Council Resolution which was adopted in response to the Libyan Civil War (2011) (Note: The civil war had occurred due to a rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi’s government which sought to oust him out of government). ii. The resolution had, inter alia, demanded the establishment of an immediate ceasefire and the end of all violence against citizens and authorized all necessary means to protect the Libyan civilians.

 

The second diplomatic method comes in the form of good offices and mediation which involves the use of a third party, whether an individual, a state or an international organisation, to encourage the contending parties to come to a settlement. Although the line between good offices and mediation is blurry, good offices are where a third party attempts to influence the opposing sides to enter into negotiations, whereas media- tion implies the active participation in the negotiating process of the third party itself. Examples of good offices can be seen in the role played by the US President in 1906 in concluding the Russian– Japanese War, or the function performed by the USSR in assisting in the peaceful settlement of the India–Pakistan dispute in 1965. A mediator on the other hand, can be seen in the  US Secretary of State in the Middle East in 1973 where he has an active and vital function to perform in seeking to persuade the disputing parties into accepting what are often his own proposals. Furthermore The UN Secretary-General can sometimes play an important role in this form of dispute settlement and an example of this was provided in the situation relating to Afghanistan in 1988 where the Geneva Agreements of that year specifically noted that a representative of the Secretary-General would lend his good offices to the parties. In addition, The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 also laid down many of the rules governing these two processes with the Conventions laying a duty upon the parties to a serious dispute to resort to good offices or mediation as far as circumstances allow, before having recourse to arms. 

The next mechanism that can be used is inquiry. Inquires are used where there is a difference of opinion on factual matters between parties, in which then a commission of inquiry will be conducted by reputable observers to determine precisely the facts in contention. This was first introduced in the 1899 Hague Conference as an alternative to arbitration. Inquiries were most notably used in the Dogger Bank incident, where it contributed to a peaceful settlement after Russian ships fired on British fishing boats believing that they were hostile Japanese torpedoes. Despite its support for this procedure, this mechanism was rarely used in practice. In fact, the inquiry was used in few cases only: Dogger Bank in 1904, Tavignano case in 1912, Tiger case in 1918, Tubantia case in 1922 and Red Crusader in 1961. It should be noted that all these cases were used a long time ago, and in current times, international organisations tend to use more ad-hoc fact finding techniques as opposed to inquiries. This mechanism also has its limitations. Rather than being an exclusive mechanism for dispute settlement, it is more often used as a part or an addition to some of the other mechanisms. This mechanism can only be successful for dispute settlement only if the cause of disagreement is related to facts as the commission does not resolve the question of legality. Parties must also be motivated to accept the reality that their own version of the events may be incorrect. The finding of the inquiry has non-binding nature, except in a situation where the parties has previously agreed to the contrary. 

The final mechanism is known as conciliation. It involves a third-party investigation of the basis of the dispute and the submission of a report which contains suggestions for a settlement. Although somewhat similar to inquiries, the duties of the commission of conciliation are not limited only to clarifying the questions of fact. Moreover, conciliation can be very similar to mediation, because the conciliator can act as a mediator in convincing the parties to accept certain solution. Conciliation can be provided for in treaties. This is seen in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, and the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, just to name a few. Commissions of conciliation can also be established outside of treaties, like the Conciliation Commission for Palestine under General Assembly resolution 194(iii). Despite its advantages of being flexible and the fact that it may stimulate negotiations between the parties by clarifying facts and discussing proposals, conciliation is not often used. A rare example of its mechanism is in the territorial dispute between Guatemala and Belize in 2002, and the boundary dispute between Finland and Norway in 1980. With that, the best mechanism will now be explained. 

The mechanism we propose is the best is negotiation. This is because of the flexibility and autonomy it retains compared to the other mechanism, since no third parties are involved. This also means that negotiation is more time efficient as a third party in other mechanisms would need to be familiar with the subject matter of the dispute and to be available during the process. It is also potentially the cheapest mechanism since no third party is involved, but this will depend on whether negotiations will lead to a successful resolution or not. However, regardless of whether an agreement could be reached, we submit that negotiations act as the first step to peaceful resolution as it can act as a precursor to other settlement procedures as the parties can decide amongst themselves how best to resolve their differences.