ABSTRACT
If there is a case in public international law that every law student remembers or is called to remember, it is the Nicaragua case. The Judgment of the International Court of Justice (hereinafter ‘Court’ or ‘ICJ’) in the case of Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (1986)2 has been monumental in the history of international law in many facets and certainly insofar as the development of the law of use of force is applied. Much ink has been spilled and even more discussion occasioned in the wake of this judgment,3 while many subsequent international judgments have referred to it as an authoritative source of law.4 This comes as no surprise bearing in mind that the Nicaragua case did address quite significant issues, including inter alia issues in relation to the sources of international law and, in particular, the formation of international customary law,5 questions of
However, jus ad bellum is the field of international law that, beyond any doubt, has been dramatically influenced by the Nicaragua case. Being the first dispute concerning use of force in the post-Charter era, the Nicaragua case presented a unique opportunity to the ICJ to break ground in many respects. In particular, the Court acknowledged for the first time that the use of inter-state force has been proscribed not only in the Charter but also in customary international law.8
