The paper begins by briefly examining facts of the case Barcelona Traction. In an obiter dictum, the court in this case identified a new category of international obligations called erga omnes - which are obligations owed by the States towards the international community as a whole in the interest of protecting basic values common to all. Although there was a difference between the ratio and the obiter dicta (erga omnes) in this case, this paper seeks to analyse why the concept of erga omnes evolved and gives various instances from the judgement itself which try to justify that the international commercial activities of the
States are in the interest of the entire international community and therefore are obligations erga omnes.