Peacefull Settlement of Interstate Disputes – Certain Aspects of the Use of Diplomatic and Judicial Means
Abstract: Development of inter-state relationships may lead to the point where diverging attitudes of States appear regarding a concrete issue. In certain situations, this divergence can be treated as a dispute, either of diplomatic or legal nature. All States are due to settle their disputes by peaceful means, which further implies their duty to undertake measures to overcome the dispute. The use of force is, in principle forbidden in the dispute settlement. The International Law and diplomacy have developed a number of means for dispute settlement. Those means are grouped in two sets: diplomatic and judicial means. The practice shows the use of different means, but it is not unusual that several means may be used to settle the same dispute, either consecutively or simultaneously. This paper attempts to assess whether it is possible to identify a set of rules in the International Law that are encouraging use of particular dispute settlement means. The paper concludes that concensualism is the governing principle of dispute settlement under the International law, which connotes that the parties to a dispute, either ex ante or ex post have to agree, explicitly or implicitly, what dispute settlement means to apply in the concrete case. Given the prevailing significance of concensualism, as the governing principle in the area of dispute settlement, it is difficult to identify some general rules which would define what means to use at what stage. It is quite impossible to pre-determine what dispute settlement means would be used by the parties in a concrete settlement process. Never the less, certain level of predictability exists if the parties agreed in advance on the manner in which disputes are to be settled. The findings and conclusions in this paper are based on the exploration of available cases from the international practice and writings by scholars.
Key words: Public International Law, Peacefull settlement of disputes, Negotiations, International Court of Justice, Arbitration.
Mirno rješavanje međudržavnih sporova – određeni aspekti upotrebe diplomatskih i pravnih sredstava
Rezime: Razvoj međudržavnih odnosa može dovesti do toga da države imaju različite stavove u pogledu nekog konkretnog pitanja. Ova razlika u stavovima u nekim situacijama poprima karakter spora, koji može biti političke ili pravne prirode. Obaveza država je da sporove između sebe rješavaju mirnim putem, što znači da moraju preduzeti mjere za prevazilaženje spora, pri čemu je upotreba nasilnih sredstava zabranjena pozitivnim pravilima međunarodnog prava. Međunarodno pravo i diplomatija su razvili više instrumenata putem kojih je moguće voditi mirno rješavanje sporova. Ovi instrumenti se dijele na diplomatska sredstva i sudska sredstva. U praksi je prisutna upotreba različitih sredstava, a nije rijetka pojava da se radi rješavanja jednog spora sukcesivno ili paralelno koristi više sredstava. Cilj ovog rada je da pokuša da ocijeni da li se prema važećim međunarodnim pravilima preferira upotreba određene vrste sredstava. Rad je zaključio da je dominirajući princip mirnog rješavanja sporova princip konsenzualizma prema kome se strane moraju, bilo ex ante ili ex post, usaglasiti da primjene određeno sredstvo ili sredstva da bi riješile konkretni spor mirnim putem. U radu je konstatovano da, usljed odlučujućeg značaja principa konsenzualizma, nije jednostavno unaprijed determinisati koje sredstvo mirnog rješavanj sporova će biti primijenjeno. Određeni stepen preciznosti postoji samo onda kada su strane unaprijed uslaglasile da će određenu vrstu sporova rješavati na određeni način.
Opservacije iznesene u radu se baziraju na analizi slučajeva iz prakse i pregledu literature o razmatranoj problematici.
Ključne riječi: Međunarodno javno pravo, mirno rješavanje sporova, pregovori, Međunarodni sud pravde, arbitraža.