A Study of the Possibility of Demanding Ecological Reparation of Iran-Iraq War from International Court of Justice

Every country can refer one’s own dispute with another country to international court of Justice. Neither international nor the legal proceedings of the court have any regulation to restrict the non-members of the court to refer their dispute to the court. Acceptance of the jurisdiction of the court by members of the court is defined in article 36 of constitution and the events and circumstances described in it. The examination of the behavior of the court in cases that resort to force had taken place shows that the court as a legal organ has tried to obtain its jurisdiction within the framework of declarations and efforts and studies the legal aspect of each issue or international dispute including resort to force. Although on this issue, many jurists disagree and are of the view that resort to force can be politically interpreted and the court should not have absolute authority to examine the cases. The International Court of Justice otherwise have obligatory jurisdiction on cases which compulsory international norms (jus cogens) are violated and the court on cases that the sovereignty of a member of the United Nations is violated by another member can declare the aggressor as responsible and the latter must compensate the loss. In the case of Iran-Iraq war enormous damage were inflicted on eco system as well as human beings and these losses have so far not been compensated. Present article by referring to norms of international law wants to find out the possibility of demanding ecological compensation by suing a case in International Court of Justice.