The Issues of the International Responsibility in the Decision of the EEU Court of February 21, 2017 in 'The Russian Federation v. The Republic of Belarus' Case

Abstract

The article through the prism of the international responsibility analyzes the first decision of the EEU court rendered on the Interstate dispute on the question of compliance by the Member States of their obligations under the law of the Eurasian Economic Union. The author provides both the positive aspects of the decision, namely to clarify the court opinion on a number of important provisions of the law of the Union, and critical remarks thereof. These concern, firstly, the use of the court's original, but not very successful, from the legal point of view, wording 'fulfillment' not in full; and secondly, the willful abandonment of judicial act outside the scope of any factual information. This, on the one hand, turned the decision on the controversial case into, in fact, advisory opinion, and on the other hand, deprived the court of a good opportunity to contribute to the discussion regarding the delineation of completed and continuing acts, which matters both for issues of admissibility of cases in terms of the conditions ratione temporis, and from the point of view of the international responsibility (including determining the effects of violations -cessation or restitution). The article suggests that the court still should consider the admissibility of the case in terms of temporal jurisdiction. It concluded that there was such because of the unfinished (continuing) at the time of entry into force the EEU Treaty because of the nature of the alleged violation of the rules on the mutual recognition of decisions of the Customs authorities.