Wednesday 14 October 2015

Failed States and Lawsuits

A case has been commenced by Somalia in the International Court of Justice seeking to fix that country's maritime boundary with Kenya.  It remains at an early stage, but I'm a little intrigued that it has gotten off the ground at all.  Somalia is usually considered the archetypal 'failed state', and for it to commence litigation seems not unlike legal action taking place at the instigation of a deregistered company (or, at least, a company under external administration.  Cf Corporations Act 2001 (Austl.) §440D and §601AD.

People escape from the direction of a huge fire-ball after an accidental explosion at a petrol storage facility within the former U.S. residential housing in Mogadishu...People escape from the direction of a huge fire-ball after an accidental explosion at a petrol storage facility within the former United States residential housing in capital Mogadishu September 3, 2013. REUTERS/Feisal Omar (SOMALIA - Tags: DISASTER ENERGY)
Image from here

If some States may be so comprehensively wrecked that they should not be considered to have legal standing, how should this be assessed?  Mexico, for instance, has been considered to be a borderline-defunct state.  Might the test be whether the country has any sort of functioning public administration or a non-kleptarchic court system?  Or is there another test that would work?

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