International Law

The hahaha Hague court shows itself irrelevant in recent ruling favoring Iran…….


 

Blow it off, the ICJ is a lineup of unaccountable hack justices reinventing international law as they go along.

 

Did Judge Trindade and his fellow ICJ jurists bother to read Article XIII, which contains specific protections for the consular representatives of each High Contracting Party while in the territory of the other High Contracting Party as well as for the physical premises of consular offices? Article XIII prohibits the examination or seizure of the papers deposited in such offices by local authorities. Iran violated that provision too.
Most importantly, have these international judges been in hibernation for the last 39 years? The treaty they relied on for their pro-Iran decision is a dead letter because the Iranian regime has blatantly violated its very core ever since the Islamists came to power in 1979. The Iranian regime was not so concerned about “amity” and “consular rights” when its supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed back in 1979 the Iranian state’s endorsement of both the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the detention of hostages by the regime’s supporters without any of the protections outlined in the treaty. The regime refused to take part in proceedings that the United States had brought before the ICJ because of this illegal seizure and detention. The regime rejected the ICJ’s judgment against it, claiming that the ICJ had no jurisdiction over the matter. It refused to take responsibility for directly compensating the hostages for physical and emotional harm inflicted on them during their captivity.

 

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE SIDES WITH THE MULLAHS

And what Trump must do.

 

During his address to the United Nations General Assembly last week, President Trump rejected the notion of global governance institutions purporting to override national sovereignty. President Trump called out the International Criminal Court, which “has no legitimacy or authority,” he said. The president vowed to “never surrender America’s sovereignty” to such an “unelected, unaccountable” globalist body. The UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, has just rendered a decision against the United States and in favor of Iran that demonstrates why President Trump is so correct. The ICJ judges ruled that some sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on the Iranian regime were inconsistent with the “Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights” between Iran and the United States, which was signed in Tehran in 1955 and entered into force in 1957. The ICJ disgracefully relied on this treaty to both assert jurisdiction over Iran’s complaint, and to decide at least provisionally in Iran’s favor on the merits. It ordered the immediate removal of U.S. sanctions on certain products for import into Iran, pending the court’s final decision in the case. President Trump must, as he is expected to do, disregard this disgraceful ruling, and any follow-on rulings. The ICJ decision is an affront to the United States’ sovereign right to decide what nations it chooses to do business with and which countries it decides not to do business with, for whatever reasons it chooses including national security.

 

Following the ICJ ruling, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States would cancel the treaty that anachronistically still includes “Amity” and “Consular Rights” in its title. That’s good, but unnecessary. The treaty is already dead as a result of the Iranian Islamist regime’s own gross violations of the treaty itself and of conventional international law principles, capped by the unlawful seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the detention of hostages under inhumane conditions by the regime’s supporters in 1979, which the regime endorsed.

 

The International Court of Justice’s entire rationale for its decision rests on this dead treaty. “The Court considers that the United States, in accordance with its obligations under the 1955 Treaty,” the ICJ declared unanimously, “must remove, by means of its choosing, any impediments arising from the measures announced on 8 May 2018 to the free exportation to the territory of Iran of goods required for humanitarian needs, such as (i) medicines and medical devices, and (ii) foodstuffs and agricultural commodities, as well as goods and services required for the safety of civil aviation, such as (iii) spare parts, equipment and associated services (including warranty, maintenance, repair services and safety-related inspections) necessary for civil aircraft. To this end, the United States must ensure that licences and necessary authorizations are granted and that payments and other transfers of funds are not subject to any restriction in so far as they relate to the goods and services referred to above.”

 

One of the ICJ judges, Cançado Trindade, wrote separately that “[T]he imperative of the realization of justice prevails over manifestations of a State’s ‘will,’” including any concerns a state may have about national security. He opined on the “evolutionary interpretation” of treaties that “contributed to the progressive development of international law.” In other words, an unaccountable globalist judge can simply make up “international law” as he or she wishes to suit the judge’s preferred progressive policy outcome.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.