International Court of Justice
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Coordinates: 52°05′11.8″N 4°17′43.8″E International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ),[1] sometimes International Court of Justice called the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). The ICJ settles disputes between states Cour internationale de justice and gives advisory opinions on international legal issues referred to it by the UN. Through its opinions and rulings, it serves as a source of international law. The ICJ is the successor of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which was established by the League of Nations in 1920. After the Second World War, both the League and the PCIJ were succeeded by the United International Court of Justice Seal Nations and ICJ, respectively. The Statute of the ICJ draws heavily from that of its predecessor, and the latter's decisions Established 1945 (PCIJ dissolved in remain valid. All members of the UN are party to the ICJ 1946) Statute. Location The Hague, Netherlands Coordinates 52°05′11.8″N 4°17′43.8″E The ICJ comprises a panel of 15 judges elected by the General Assembly and Security Council for nine-year terms. Authorized UN Charter · ICJ Statute The court is seated in the Peace Palace in The Hague, by Netherlands, making it the only principal U.N. organ not Judge term 9 years located in New York City.[2] Its official working languages length are English and French. Number of 15 positions Website www.icj-cij.org (https://w Contents ww.icj-cij.org/en) President History The Permanent Court of International Justice Currently Abdulqawi Yusuf Establishment of the International Court of Since 6 February 2018 Justice Lead 5 February 2021 Activities position Composition ends Ad hoc judges Vice President Chambers Currently Xue Hanqin Current composition Since 6 February 2018 Presidents Lead 5 February 2021 Jurisdiction position Contentious issues ends Incidental jurisdiction Advisory opinions ICJ and the Security Council Examples of contentious cases Law applied Procedure Preliminary objections Applications to intervene Judgment and remedies Criticisms See also Notes Further reading External links Lectures History The first permanent institution established for the purpose of settling international disputes was the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), which was created by the Hague Peace Conference of 1899. Initiated by Russian Czar Nicholas II, the conference involved all the world's major powers, as well as several smaller states, resulted in the first multilateral treaties concerned with the conduct of warfare.[3] Among these was the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, which set forth the institutional and procedural framework for arbitral proceedings, which would take place in The Hague, Netherlands. Although the proceedings would be supported by a permanent bureau—whose functions would be equivalent to that of a secretariat or court registry—the arbitrators would be appointed by the disputing states from a larger pool provided by each member of the Convention. The PCA was established in 1900 and began proceedings in 1902. A second Hague Peace Conference in 1907, which involved most of the world's sovereign states, revised the Convention and enhanced the rules governing arbitral proceedings before the PCA. During this conference, the United States, Great Britain and Germany submitted a joint proposal for a permanent court whose judges would serve full-time. As the delegates could not agree as to how the judges would be selected, the matter was temporarily shelved pending an agreement to be adopted at a later convention. The Hague Peace Conferences, and the ideas that emerged therefrom, influenced the creation of the Central American Court of Justice, which was established in 1908 as one of the earliest regional judicial bodies. Various plans and proposals were made between 1911 and 1919 for the establishment of an international judicial tribunal, which would not be realized into the formation of a new international system following the First World War. The Permanent Court of International Justice The unprecedented bloodshed of the First World War led to the creation of the League of Nations, established by the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as the first worldwide intergovernmental organization aimed at maintaining peace and collective security. Article 14 League's Covenant called for the establishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which would be responsible for adjudicating any international dispute submitted to it by the contesting parties, as well as to provide an advisory opinion upon any dispute or question referred to it by the League of Nations. In December 1920, following several drafts and debates, the Assembly of the League unanimously adopted the Statute of the PCIJ, which was signed and ratified the following year by a majority of members. Among other things, the new Statute resolved the contentious issues of selecting judges by providing that the judges be elected by both the Council and the Assembly of the League concurrently but independently. The makeup of the PCIJ would reflect the "main forms of civilization and the principal legal systems of the world”.[4] The PCIJ would be permanently placed at the Peace Palace in The Hague, alongside Permanent Court of Arbitration. The PCIJ represented a major innovation in international jurisprudence in several ways: Unlike previous international arbitral tribunals, it was a permanent body governed by its own statutory provisions and rules of procedure It had a permanent registry that served as a liaison with governments and international bodies; Its proceedings were largely public, including pleadings, oral arguments, and all documentary evidence; It was accessible to all states and could be declared by states to have compulsory jurisdiction over disputes; The PCIJ Statute was the first to list sources of law it would draw upon, which in turn became sources of international law Judges were more representative of the world and its legal systems than any prior international judicial body. As a permanent body, the PCIJ would, over time, make a series decisions and rulings that would develop international law Unlike the ICJ, the PCIJ was not part of the League, nor were members of the League automatically a party to its Statute. The United States, which played a key role in both the second Hague Peace Conference and the Paris Peace Conference, was notably not a member of the League, although several of its nationals served as judges of the Court. From its first session in 1922 until 1940, the PCIJ dealt with 29 interstate disputes and issued 27 advisory opinions. The Court's widespread acceptance was reflected by the fact that several hundred international treaties and agreements conferred jurisdiction upon it over specified categories of disputes. In addition to helping resolve several serious international disputes, the PCIJ helped clarify several ambiguities in international law that contributed to its development. The United States played a major role in setting up the World Court but never joined.[5] Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and Roosevelt all supported membership, but it was impossible to get a 2/3 majority in the Senate for a treaty[6] Establishment of the International Court of Justice Following a peak of activity in 1933, the PCIJ began to decline in its activities due to the growing international tension and isolationism that characterized the era. The Second World War effectively put an end to the Court, which held its last public session on December 1939 and issued its last orders on February 1940. In 1942 the United States and United Kingdom jointly declared support for establishing or re-establishing an international court after the war, and in 1943, the U.K. chaired a panel of jurists from around the world, the "Inter-Allied Committee", to discuss the matter. Its 1944 report recommended that: The statute of any new international court should be based on that of the PCIJ; The new court should retain an advisory jurisdiction; Acceptance of the new court's jurisdiction should be voluntary; The court should deal only with judicial and not political matters Several months later, a conference of the major Allied Powers—China, the USSR, the U.K., and the U.S. —issued a joint declaration recognizing the necessity “of establishing at the earliest practicable date a general international organization, based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all peace-loving States, and open to membership by all such States, large and small, for the maintenance of international peace and security”.[7] The following Allied conference at Dumbarton Oaks, in the United States, published a proposal in October 1944 that called for the establishment of an intergovernmental organization that would include an international court. A meeting was subsequently convened in Washington, D.C. in April 1945, involving 44 jurists from around the world to draft a statute for the proposed court. The draft statute was substantially similar to that of the PCIJ, and it was questioned whether a new court should even be created. During the San Francisco Conference, which took place from 25 April to 26 June 1945 and involved 50 countries, it was decided that an entirely new court should be established as a principal organ of the new United Nations. The statute of this court would form an integral part of the United Nations Charter, which, to maintain continuity, expressly held that the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was based upon that of the PCIJ. Consequently, the PCIJ convened for the last time in October 1945 and resolved to transfer its archives to its successor, which would take its place at the Peace Palace. The judges of the PCIJ all resigned on 31 January 1946, with the election of the first members of the ICJ taking place the following February at the First Session of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.