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The United States and the United Kingdom demanded that Libya extradite for trial two suspects in the bombing of a Pan American airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. Libya refused, but offered to surrender the suspected terrorists to an impartial international tribunal or to try them in its national courts. The U.S. and the U.K. then obtained a Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Libya until it surrendered the two men.
Libya asked the ICJ to rule that the sanctions were beyond the Security Council's authority under the U.N. Charter. The governing international treaty on civil aviation allowed a state either to extradite or to try suspected terrorists in national courts. The ICJ rejected Libya's claim.
