Marshall's Case; the Deep Harmony of International "Phenomenon" and "Nomemon"

Following the applications filed by the Republic of the Marshall Islands on 24 April 2014, in the International Court of Justice instituting proceedings against the United Kingdom, India, and Pakistan, with a claim that they did not fulfill their international obligations under Article 6 of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its corresponding customary international law obligations, the Court's judgement on jurisdiction was issued on 5 October 2016. Despite the fact that this case was the first time that the court could specifically assess the precise meaning of the obligations raised in article 6 and their customary status, it did not enter into the merits with the Court's judgement on the absence of a legal justiciable dispute between the parties. This article surveys the reasonableness and justification of this decision by two logical and sociological methodologies. According to the authors, the Court, by prescribing a new, formal and unprecedented criterion that requires the “notice” of the existence of a dispute at the time of filing an application, loosed a golden opportunity to international law development through clarifying the obligations of nuclear-weapon States and crystallizing the scope of the concept of international community as a whole. Hiding behind the veil of “judicial formalism”, the court seems again revealed the fundamental and continuance influence of the logic of power on international law.