This chapter concludes that the individual is considered in the legal reasoning of the Court in the identified contexts to a minor extent and offers reflections on the reasons for this. It recapitulates reflections on formalism and stability that are key in maritime and territorial boundary disputes. It notes that the Court is correctly limited to the request of the parties and cannot innovate beyond their submissions. However, across all chapters it was observed that state litigants often raise concerns about individuals in their custody. It therefore challenges the Court’s judicial caution when faced with potentially developing international law in addressing state’s concerns. It argues that while the Court does not have a formal law-making function, it develops international law nonetheless through its interpretations and clarifications and should not hesitate to do so when clarification is sought by state litigants on matters relating to the affected individuals in such disputes.

10.1 INTRODUCTION [LO1]

There are many applications where structures or machine parts are subjected to significant changes in temperature, for example, turbine blades, high-speed rotating machinery, and boilers in thermal power plants. Large thermal stresses may be developed in such applications, and sometimes such stresses may exceed the yield limit. It is therefore necessary to make provisions in the design of components to avoid failure due to thermal stresses. If the ends of a rod or any other machine parts are rigidly fixed such that the expansion or compression is prevented and the temperature is changed, tensile or compressive stress would be set up, and in simple terms, these stresses are called thermal stresses. In a long steam pipe, expansion joints are sometimes inserted, and in bridges, one end may be rigidly fastened to the main structure while the other end rests on rollers to avoid thermal stresses. In simple terms, this may be demonstrated considering a rod of length l and cross-sectional area A fixed at both ends (Figure 10.1) and temperature is raised by ΔT. This would produce a thermal strain ∈t in the rod such that

where a is the coefficient of thermal expansion. Since the rod is not free to expand, a compressive stress σc would be developed in the rod, and this is given by

If the rise in temperature is significant, the rod may buckle, which is of serious consideration in the design of machine parts or structures. To avoid this, we need to find the critical force Pcr for buckling. Using the basic buckling criterion, this can be given for a column pin ended at both ends, by

where I is the least moment of inertia of the constant cross-section column (rod) and A is the cross-sectional area of the column.

The introduction explains the book’s argument that individuals impacted by the repercussions of interstate disputes dealt with by the Court should and can be further integrated into its procedure and considered in its legal reasoning. Through the lens of social idealism, it explains how the Court’s effectiveness and legitimacy may be compromised due to its reluctant approach towards individuals. It also clarifies the method, methodology, scope, and structure of the book.

This chapter argues that such judicialisation before the ICJ has not developed international environmental law in a way favourable to victims of environmental degradation. It first observes that certain promising human rights-focused environmental disputes were discontinued, indicating that other forms of peaceful dispute settlement remain significant in the environmental context. It then argues that raising arguments in certain incidental proceedings in environmental disputes, such as counterclaims, have limited the potential for certain decisions to develop peoples’ rights in environmental disputes. Finally, it argues that the Court’s perceived judicial caution has limited its ability to clarify the role of local populations in environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and develop certain environmental principles in light of populations, such as the precautionary principle or the principle of intergenerational equity.

12.1 INTRODUCTION [LO1]

There are in general two approaches to solving equilibrium problems in solid mechanics: Eulerian and Lagrangian. The first approach deals with vectors such as force and moments, and considers the static equilibrium and compatibility equations to solve the problems. In the second approach, scalars such as work and energy are used, and here solutions to problems are based on the principle of conservation of energy. There are many situations where the second approach is more advantageous, and here some powerful methods, such as the method of virtual work, based on this approach, are used.

Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches to solving solid mechanics problems are much more involved. However, here we have chosen to describe these in a simplified manner, which is suitable as a prologue to the present discussion on energy methods.

In mechanics, energy is defined as the capacity to do work, and this may exist in different forms. We are concerned here with elastic strain energy, which is a form of potential energy stored in a body on which some work is done by externally applied forces. Here it is assumed that the material remains elastic when work has been done so that all the energy is recoverable and no permanent deformation occurs. This means that strain energy U = work done. If the load is applied gradually in straining, the material load–extension graph is as shown in Figure 12.1, and we may write U = ½ Pδ.

The hatched portion of the load–extension graph represents the strain energy and the unhatched portion ABD represents the complementary energy that is utilized in some advanced energy methods of solution.

On 6 December 1992, following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in India, communal riots broke out in several parts of the country. Mumbai witnessed a horrific bout of communal riots in the months between December 1992 and January 1993, which saw enormous violence against Muslim minorities in the city. This violence was accompanied by the Hindu right-wing political party Shiv Sena's attempts to reconfigure the city as a sacred Hindu space. According to official statistics, the death toll exceeded 800, and 1,50,000 residents, mostly Muslims, left the city. About 100, 000 Muslim refugees took shelter in camps constructed in neighbourhoods that were predominantly populated by Muslims in central Mumbai. The role of the police in the riots was widely criticised by civil society actors and later by an investigating committee as they were accused of being mute spectators and at times active participants in the excessive violence against Muslims, especially in the city's slums. The riots transformed the social geography of Mumbai drastically. Mumbai was a city with a high proportion of ethnically mixed neighbourhoods with the Muslim population spread across the city. After the riots, the Muslim population became far more concentrated in central Mumbai and in slums in north Mumbai. This violent spatial reorganisation of the city because of a concerted attack against Muslim minorities catapulted several Muslim women into the public sphere. They were involved in the rehabilitation of riot victims. Subsequently, they began participating in several initiatives that spoke to concerns of gender justice within the family and ultimately became a part of a project for addressing gender equality in the domain of Muslim family law.

This chapter argues that advisory proceedings have the procedural flexibility to enable individuals’ participation, despite the Court’s reluctance to bring such participation to fruition. It first dispels the myth that witnesses are limited to the confines of contentious proceedings. It then discusses the Court’s sparse engagement with amici curiae. Finally, it explores the potential of the analogous extension of Article 66(2) of the Court’s Statute, authorising the furnishing of information by entities beyond states and international organisations.

This chapter observes instances in which the World Court has recognised that certain sources of international law may confer rights for individuals. It first identifies cases where the Court has interpreted relevant provisions of other international treaties, beyond the international human rights framework, as conferring rights on individual. In so doing, it analyses where the Court has applied ‘textualist’ and ‘intentionalist’ approaches to reach its conclusions. The chapter then notes where the Court has identified customary international law, the existence of which would confer rights to private persons in specific contexts. It notes that while there are ambiguities in the Court’s methods, this is characteristic of its approach to sources more broadly