The International Court of Justice as a Forum for Genocide Cases

In light of the 2007 decision by the International Court of Justice in Bosnia's ethnic cleansing suit against Yugoslavia, the question is raised at a symposium being held September 28 at Case Western Reserve School of Law as to whether the Genocide Convention constitutes a viable legal tool to stop atrocities perpetrated by a state. This article assesses the possibilities for using the Genocide Convention to this end. While a state may, as the ICJ decided in the 2007 case, sue another state for genocide, the utility of the Genocide Convention is limited by the court's restrictive view of what constitutes genocide in the ethnic cleansing situation, and by the fact that many states are not subject to the court's jurisdiction if they commit genocide.