The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals 12 (2013) 163–175 brill.com/lape Shabtai Rosenne and the International Court of Justice* Dame Rosalyn Higgins DBE QC Former President of the International Court of Justice It is by now well known in the world of international law that a new Judge at the International Court of Justice finds awaiting him or her on the office bookshelf not only the Pleadings, Judgments and Opinions of the Perma- nent Court of Justice and of the International Court of Justice, but the four volumes of Shabtai Rosenne’s The Law and Practice of the International Court, 1920–2005. Of course, there have over the years been many well-respected and knowledgeable writers on the Court. But the question arises: how could it be, that one who was never (for various reasons unrelated to his ability) a Judge of the International Court, produced thousands of pages, so full of insight and understanding, and precise in their formulation, that they have come to be regarded as somehow determinative of issues that arose in the life of the Court? These volumes were a marvel, yes, but how could they be so, especially as they were written by an author who had not ‘lived within the Court’? The answer is twofold: first, Shabtai Rosenne was a great, great man and scholar. Second, for nearly sixty years he had an ‘inside track’ at the Court. And he had it because he noted, he saw, he compared, and he asked, asked, and asked again – seeking information and explanations from seven Regis- trars. And because of his brilliance, and integrity, they sought to assist him in his search for information and answers. His brilliance needs no explanation from me this evening. But a word on his integrity might help to explain how this ‘outsider’ at the Court was really *) This is the text of the Second Shabtai Rosenne Memorial Lecture, delivered on 19 November 2012 at The Law Society, London. The event was hosted by The Embassy of Israel in London, Brill – Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and the Rosenne Family. I am grateful to Kenneth Keith for his comments. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI: 10.1163/15718034-12341248 R. Higgins / 164 The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals 12 (2013) 163–175 its greatest ‘insider’. I mean this: Rosenne treated the Court with the utmost respect. He wrote with the greatest courtesy. He constantly expressed his appreciation for the answers he was given. He was careful never to reveal, even in his private correspondence, whether he believed a particular Judg- ment or Advisory Opinion to be of merit or to have shortcomings. He never offered opinions on Judges, or what they had written. He was not a ‘com- mentator on the Court’ in that sense of the term: but he sought to under- stand everything about the Court – simply everything – and he did it mostly through a remarkable correspondence with successive Registrars, who fully trusted him, for some sixty years. It seems that as early as 1952 Shabtai Rosenne, then Legal Adviser of the Government of Israel, but manifestly also a legal scholar, was already in communication with the International Court of Justice. That year, he wrote to Edvard Hambro, the then Registrar, telling him that “it is my intention to try to write a full length work on the International Court of Justice, describ- ing in particular its law, practice and procedure”. As we know, he was bril- liantly to succeed in this intention. He asked Hambro if he might receive a bevy of documents, records of pleadings, hearings, etc., as soon as they appeared in stenographed form. “Is it possible”, Rosenne asked “to have a standing arrangement with the Registry to that end?” Then, in a paragraph that shows both his prescience and his tact, he wrote: Undoubtedly, during this work I shall have many occasions to seek infor- mation and advice from the Registry. I would not like to have to trouble you every time unless you are willing to be the victim of my inquisitive- ness, and I wonder if perhaps someone else in the Registry . could be my ‘contact man’. Naturally, the work will be written on my entire responsibility, but I think it would enhance its view very considerably if I could know the views and attitude of the Court itself on different topics. My plan is to have it published before the year 1955, when in theory at any rate, the possibility of amending the Charter and the Statute might be more closely upon us. In the event, his The International Court of Justice: An Essay in Political and Legal Theory was published in 1957. But amendment of the Charter and Statute (save for important but modest Security Council numbers and con- sequences for voting majorities) have yet to happen..