The ICJ’s de facto authority and the exercise of inherent powers in the recent case of Iran v. the United States

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of the potential authority of the ICJ from an institutional perspective by examining two different cases in which Iran brought the U.S. before the ICJ due to sanctions imposed by the U.S. government during the Trump’s administration. Firstly, it approaches to the ICJ’s jurisdiction from a global governance context under the premises of the de facto authority and the theory of inherent powers. In the second part, it deals with the recent cases of Iran v the U.S. before the ICJ jurisdiction in order to examine if the decisions issued by the ICJ have been accepted and embraced by the two mentioned states and their respective compliance partners. Finally, it provides a conclusion about the exercise of ‘intermediated’ authority by the ICJ through the use of inherent powers when it issued certain relevant decisions while deciding about certain procedural incidents in the case at hand.