Zealand and Australis are Members of the United Nations and currently non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. Both States have made declarations under Article 36(2) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice accepting the Court's compulsory jurisdiction. They are also States parties to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties since it entered into force.

Five years ago, Red Joan, a senior officer in Australis's secret service defected to Zealand. Red Joan had been providing Zealand's defence and security forces with invaluable information about clandestine operations by Australis's security forces in Zealand and other countries around the world. The information she provided enabled Zealand to stop efforts by Australis to interfere in its parliamentary elections and fuel civil unrest through social media. Red Joan has been denounced as a traitor by Australis's President, Hugh Lee, on Australis public television and radio. Red Joan advised Zealand officials that she fears for her life and that of her family following the president's public statements. After several months passed with no further statements by President Lee, Red Joan decided it was safe to have her son, Oliver, who lived in Australis, visit her. One day after his arrival in Zealand, Red Joan and her son were found unconscious near their home and remain in a coma. After running extensive tests, Zealand and independent medical authorities determined that Red Joan and her son were victims of a chemical weapon, Scorin, which had been designed in 2010 and was only manufactured by Australis's security forces. As a result of this incident, Zealand has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to condemn Australis's violation of its territorial sovereignty and impose economic sanctions on the country in response.

While the Security Council is deliberating Zealand's draft resolution, press reports are emerging that there has been a large-scale chemical weapons attack on rebel forces and the civilian population in West Sawosi, a breakaway province in the State of Sinesia. The independent medical personnel on the ground have reported victims presenting with symptoms consistent with exposure to Scorin. The civil war in Sinesia has been waged for almost a decade between government and rebel forces. The government forces are allied with Australis. With the assistance of Australis' armed forces and equipment, the Sinesia government have almost defeated all rebel forces, those in West Sawosi are the last remaining pocket of resistance. Australis and Sinesia's presidents held a joint press conference two days ago indicating that they will be directing all their efforts to "finishing what they had started" and ensuring that the civil war would end soon with the government being victorious. In response to the press reports, Australis advised the Security Council that the chemical weapon had been stolen from its high security facility in Australis by rogue former Australis security forces who had become mercenaries and were working for the rebel forces. They argue that the attack and ensuing tragedy were designed to draw international sympathy to the rebel's cause.

Australis and Zealand are States Parties to the (fictitious) Convention on the Elimination of Biological and Chemical Weapons (CEBCW) since the treaty came into force in 2001. The treaty has 190 States Parties. The Convention is aimed at the destruction of all existing biological and chemical weapons stockpiles by 2017 and to prevent the manufacture of any new chemical weapons or stockpiles in order to eradicate this "scourge from humanity". Article 5 CEBCW provides that States Parties can retain small amounts of existing biological weapons in high-security facilities for the purposes of medical research only. When Australis acceded to the Convention, it entered a declaration to Article 5 stating that it understood that the provision related to biological and chemical weapons. Within a month, Zealand had written to the depository of the Convention to express the view that the declaration was in fact a reservation not a declaration, and that it was contrary to the treaty's object and purpose.

Advise Zealand in respect of the prospects of success of an application against Australis before the International Court of Justice arising from its international responsibility concerning the use of force and law of treaties, including any reparations it may request.