MAURIZIO RAGAZZI
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198298700
- eISBN:
- 9780191707513
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198298700.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Law of Obligations
This chapter examines the prohibition erga omnes of racial discrimination by referring extensively to the South West Africa cases. South Africa did not object to the prohibition of racial ...
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This chapter examines the prohibition erga omnes of racial discrimination by referring extensively to the South West Africa cases. South Africa did not object to the prohibition of racial discrimination as such, but to interpreting this prohibition as encompassing apartheid. From this, it is easier to appreciate the wording used by the International Court in the Barcelona Traction case, whereby the obligation erga omnes against racial discrimination (as against slavery) does not only outlaw racial discrimination (and slavery) in general, but affords also protection against policies contradicting the general prohibition. Moreover, in the South West Africa cases, the parties disputed whether the prohibition would be opposable to a persistent objector. Though the International Court did not pronounce on the merits, certain arguments in the pleadings and passages from Judge Tanaka's dissenting opinion underline the moral basis of the prohibition in support of its opposability erga omnes without exception.Less
This chapter examines the prohibition erga omnes of racial discrimination by referring extensively to the South West Africa cases. South Africa did not object to the prohibition of racial discrimination as such, but to interpreting this prohibition as encompassing apartheid. From this, it is easier to appreciate the wording used by the International Court in the Barcelona Traction case, whereby the obligation erga omnes against racial discrimination (as against slavery) does not only outlaw racial discrimination (and slavery) in general, but affords also protection against policies contradicting the general prohibition. Moreover, in the South West Africa cases, the parties disputed whether the prohibition would be opposable to a persistent objector. Though the International Court did not pronounce on the merits, certain arguments in the pleadings and passages from Judge Tanaka's dissenting opinion underline the moral basis of the prohibition in support of its opposability erga omnes without exception.
