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The Case Between Germany And The United States Essay

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Next, we will explore if ICJ judgements tend to favor the major powers. We will focus on the more recent cases for the study as they are most applicable to today’s world. Specifically, we will track cases filed from 1992 to 2013. The table below lists cases involving major powers in the ICJ during this time period. In this example we will consider Germany and Italy as strong powers. They are not as powerful as the five permanent members of the Security Council, but they are still great powers in international politics and economics. The court ruled in favor of the powerful/strong states ten times, and in favor of the weak state just four times. The court rules in favor of neither Iran nor the United States in the 1992 case. Additionally, I have not included the 1999 case between Germany and the United States in either count. This is because both states are classified as powerful states in this example. Although statistically the powerful states are favored, this data is inconclusive for a few reasons. First, five decisions for the powerful states came from a legality of force claim from Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia went to the ICJ with similar claims for all five of the cases it was a part of in Table 2. Thus, if Yugoslavia’s claim was weak or undoubtedly in the wrong, the same case counted five times in favor of the powerful state. Second, Mexico is responsible for two out of the four decisions favoring weaker states. The 2008 Mexico v. USA case was brought forth because the

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