Pei-Lun Tsai
Ph.D. Candidate, School of Law,
University of Nottingham
On 17 December 2013, Timor-Leste instituted proceedings against Australia before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), claiming that Australia violated international law by seizing and detaining documents and data taken from the office of a legal adviser to Timor-Leste, including materials concerning a pending arbitration between Timor-Leste and Australia. On the same day, Timor-Leste submitted a request for the indication of provisional measures, including, inter alia, that Australia transfer custody of the seized materials to the ICJ and assure that it would not intercept future communications between Timor-Leste and its legal advisers. On 3 March 2014, the Court adopted an order, granting certain parts of Timor-Leste’s request, and the present contribution seeks to introduce, through an analysis of this order, the ICJ’s power to indicate provisional measures and its opinion concerning a State’s communications with its legal advisers.
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