§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean):The Government have amended the United Kingdom's declaration accepting the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice under Article 36(2) of the Statute of the Court. A copy of the revised declaration, set out in a letter dated 5 July 2004 to the United Nations Secretary-General, has been placed in the Library of the House.
The revised declaration makes two main changes to the former declaration dated 1 January 1969. The first updates from 24 October 1945 to 1 January 1974, the cutoff date for the acceptance of the court's jurisdiction, thus excluding stale claims. The effect is that jurisdiction is not accepted in respect of disputes which arose before 1 January 1974. The second is to broaden the scope of the previous Commonwealth exception, so that jurisdiction is not accepted in respect of any dispute with the government of any other country who are or have been a member of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth exception is of long standing and is retained by a number of Commonwealth countries.
Though these changes are of general application, their immediate significance is that they prevent any Commonwealth country from circumventing the present limitations by withdrawing from the Commonwealth and then instituting proceedings against the United Kingdom in respect of an existing dispute. The Government have acted to prevent such a move as they believe it is against the spirit of the existing Commonwealth exception.