The Justiciability of Paraguay’s Claim of Treaty Violation

The U.S. Government’s position asserting nonjusticiability of the treaty claims raised by Paraguay in the domestic and international lawsuits is disturbing. The Government’s amicus filings at the court of appeals and the Supreme Court denied that Paraguay’s claims belonged in federal court (or indeed in any court at all); at die International Court of Justice, the United States admitted a treaty violation but denied the competence of that tribunal to enter a judicial remedy. At one or another phase of these proceedings, the U.S. Government pressed a variety of arguments that (if accepted) would rule out virtually any judicial consideration of a treaty-based claim. The haste with which the Supreme Court denied a stay in Breard’s case foreclosed adequate consideration of the justiciability of such claims in domestic courts and also effectively barred Paraguay from achieving the relief it sought on the international plane

International court · International law · Jurisdiction · Justiciability · Political question · Political science · Politics · Public international law · Supreme court · Treaty · Tribunal · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Human Rights and Development · International Law and Human Rights · Law

• Revitalizing The U.S. Compliance Power

  Open Access•Steve Charnovitz•American Journal of International…•2008

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