Aspects of the Case Concerning the Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company, Ltd.
![handle is hein.journals/vajint11 and id is 339 raw text is: Aspects of the Case Concerning
the Barcelona Traction, Light
and Power Company, Ltd.
ROSALYN HIGGINS*
To be asked to contribute to this issue of the Virginia
Journal of International Law is an honor.
Judge Hardy C. Dillard has written on jurisprudential
aspects of international law in the Hague Recueil des Cours,
the Proceedings of the American Society of International
Law, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. In par-
ticular, he has examined the relevance of diplomacy and
policy to the legal process, and both his felicity of expression
and his depth of thought have been of the greatest assistance
to an English international lawyer seeking to keep abreast
of American legal developments. His mind is both subtle and
profound, at once open to new ideas and vigorous in its
rejection of the facile or shoddy. His understanding and
analysis of the policy-oriented approach to international law
is, or should be, essential reading for all international law-
yers who are separated by the Atlantic from today's great
debates on methodology. Further, as I have reason to know
from personal experience, Judge Dillard has sufficient kind-
ness to find time to engage in discussion and correspondence
with those who seek to benefit from his knowledge and cul-
ture. His accessibility has been greatly to the advantage of
student and colleague alike.
On February 5, 1970, the International Court of Justice handed
down its judgment on the Case concerning the Barcelona Traction,
Light and Power Company, Ltd.' This judgment stemmed from a new
application made to the Court in 1962, the case originally having been
initiated in 1958 and then removed from the Court's General List in
1962. The Court found in favor of Spain by the uncommonly large
majority of fifteen votes to one, in denying the jus standi of Belgium
to pursue the claim. The judgment has received extraordinarily little
attention in legal journals,2 and has aroused minimal comment. This
* The Royal Institute of International Affairs, London.
1. Case Concerning the Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Co. Ltd., (Bel-
gium v. Spain), Second Phase [1970] I.C... 4, [hereinafter cited as Barce-
lona Traction].
2. But see Berger, Shareholder Rights under the German Stock Corporation
Law of 1965, 38 FORDHAM L. REv. 687 (1970), and FOREIGN INVESTMENT
IN LATIN AMERICA: PAST POLICIES AND FuTur TRENDS, 96 (Proceedings,
Regional Meeting of the American Society of International Law, Mar. 13,
14, 1970; pub. by VA. J. INT'L LAW, 1970).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/vajint11&div=35&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Aspects of the Case Concerning the Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company, Ltd.
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