050- Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company Limited (Belgium vs Spain)
On June 19th, 1962, Belgium filed with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) a new application initiating proceedings in the case 041- Barcelona Traction (Belgium vs Spain).
Spain raised four preliminary objections to the Jurisdiction of the Court. In its judgment of July 24th, 1964, the ICJ rejected two of these objections and joined the last two to the examination on the merits.
The Court ruled on the merits of the case in its judgment of February 5th, 1970 and held that Belgium did not have a standing to exercise diplomatic protection of the shareholders of a Canadian company in respect of measures taken against that company in Spain. The argument of diplomatic protection of shareholders did not apply to the extent that it could give rise to competing claims by several States. Finally, the ICJ stressed that fairness was respected here to the extent that Canada could always take legal action.
This summary is provided for informational purposes only, does not involve the responsibility of Dome and should in no way be used as a substitute for a careful reading of the judgment and order of the case.
