A new life for actio popularis in international law? : the prevention and punishment of genocide as an interest of "the international community as a whole" before the International Court of Justice

In the Barcelona Traction case, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) made an ‘essential distinction’ between the obligations of States towards ‘the international community as a whole’ and their other obligations. The ICJ then included the protection of peoples against genocide among the former. The disputes currently pending before the Court under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide seem to confirm that preventing, supressing and punishing genocide is the real community interest of all States. In particular, the cases brought by States not directly affected by the alleged violation of the prohibition of genocide, in particular, The Gambia v. Myanmar case, raise the question of the place and role of actio popularis in the judicial protection of community interests in the international legal order.