Overview
Foley Hoag regularly represents Sovereign States in litigation before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
As a top law firm with offices in Boston, New York, Paris and Washington D.C., the firm has more experience litigating before the ICJ than any other law firm in the world. And no other law firm has enjoyed as much success in the court.
Foley Hoag’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) practice group is led by partner Paul Reichler, whom Chambers Global has called “one of the world’s most respected and experienced practitioners of Public International Law” who “belongs to a select group of elite lawyers with extensive experience litigating on behalf of Sovereign States before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.”
Paul Reichler’s experience before the ICJ, also known as the World Court, dates back to 1984, when he represented Nicaragua in its landmark victory over the United States in the Case Concerning Armed Activities in and against Nicaragua. The court ruled that the U.S. had engaged in the unlawful use of force against Nicaragua by arming and supporting counter-revolutionary insurgents attempting to overthrow Nicaragua’s government, and by mining Nicaragua’s harbors.
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Since 2006, Foley Hoag, led by Reichler and fellow partner Lawrence Martin, working in collaboration with the firm’s highly-skilled and experienced associates, has achieved victories for Uruguay against Argentina in the Case Concerning Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay, for Nicaragua against Costa Rica in the Case Concerning Navigational and Related Rights, and for Nicaragua against Colombia in the Case Concerning Territorial and Maritime Dispute.
The breadth of Foley Hoag's current expertise in State-to-State litigation is evident from the most recent case docket of the ICJ: the firm is counsel in six of the 14 cases now pending before the ICJ.
Foley Hoag lawyers have handled cases before the ICJ covering a wide variety of subjects, including:
- use of force
- trans-boundary environmental harm
- navigational rights and international watercourses
- delimitation of maritime boundaries
- territorial sovereignty
- racial and ethnic discrimination
- international human rights and humanitarian law
- the law of treaties and treaty interpretation
- diplomatic protection and immunity
- State responsibility
Foley Hoag attributes its success before the Court to its ability to combine legal expertise in these and other areas of international law with a unique capacity to investigate, assemble, organize and present factual evidence, including expert and witness testimony, in support of its sovereign clients’ claims and defenses.
