Static Interpretation of the International Court of Justice in Establishing Responsibility for Genocide: Scrutinizing the Case of Croatia v. Serbia (2015)

Following the application of Croatia against Serbia and Serbian counter-claim, before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the court has delivered its judgment in 2015 in respect of the crime of genocide, that was after almost sixteen years from beginning of the case. Under the influence of International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the court could not hold that alleged crime of genocide has occurred, that was because of a very high threshold for establishment of mens rea, implicitly considered by the world court. In this case, ICJ have had the opportunity to deal with some important aspects of the case, including specifically, succession of states in respect of international responsibility and acquiring the elements of genocide via solving the dispute. Despite of its long process, this judgment not only could not improve dynamic aspect of international law, but would even make the convention on prevention and punishment of genocide as an inefficient document. These aspects of this case and practice are under discussion in this paper.