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The International Court of Justice after Fifty Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Robert Y. Jennings
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Extract

The International Court of Justice was brought into being by the Charter of the United Nations (Articles 7(1), 36(3), and 92-96), and by the Statute of the Court which was made an integral part of the Charter; both of which instruments were signed at San Francisco on June 26, 1945. The most important difference between the Statute of the new Court and that of its predecessor, the Permanent Court of International Justice, on which the new Statute was based, was that the new Court was to be one of the “principal organs” of the United Nations. The Charter and the new Statute entered into force on October 24, 1945. After the election of the Court’s first members the new Court met for the first time in the Peace Palace at The Hague on April 1, 1946, under the presidency of Judge Guerrero, with Judge Basdevant as Vice-President.

Type
The United Nations at Fifty
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 89 , Issue 3 , July 1995 , pp. 493 - 505
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1995

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References

1 1949 ICJ Rep. 174 (Advisory Opinion of Apr. 11).

2 1951 ICJ Rep. 116 (Dec. 18).

3 North Sea Continental Shelf Cases (FRG/Den.; FRG/Neth.), 1969 ICJ Rep. 3 (Feb. 20); Continental Shelf (Tunis./Libya), Judgment, 1982 ICJ Rep. 18 (Feb. 24); Continental Shelf (Libya/Malta), 1985 ICJ Rep. 13 (June 3).

4 Barcelona Traction, Light & Power Co., Ltd. (Second Phase) (Belg. v. Spain), 1970 ICJ Rep. 3 (Feb. 5).

5 Fisheries Jurisdiction (UK v. Ice.; FRG v. Ice.), Merits, 1974 ICJ REP. 3, 175 (July 25).

6 The resolution is reprinted in 70 AJIL 905 (1976).

7 The revised Rules of Court are reprinted in 73 AJIL 748 (1979).

8 See Ruth Donner, Recent Developments in the Work of the International Court of Justice, 2 The Finnish Yearbook of International Law 355 (1991).

9 See Bryan F. MacPherson, World Court Enhancements to Advance the Rule of Law (Center for UN Reform Education Monograph No. 13, 1994).

10 See Gilbert Guillaume, De l'exécution des décisions de la Cour internationale de Justice, in Essays in Memory of Manfred Lachs (International Institute of Space Law, Vienna, forthcoming).

11 Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicar. v. U.S.) jurisdiction and Admissibility, 1984 ICJ Rep. 392 (Nov. 26).

12 See Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General, Status as at 31 December 1993, at 23, UN Doc. ST/LEG/SER.E/12, UN Sales No. E.94.V.11 (1994).

13 C. H. M. Waldock, Decline of the Optional Clause, 32 Brit. Y.B. Int’l L. 244 (1955–56).

14 Shortly after these prescient words were written, there appeared the welcome and excellent new study by Professor J. G. Merrills, The Optional Clause Revisited, 64 Brit. Y.B. Int’l L. 197 (1993).

15 The text of the decree is reprinted in 83 AJIL 457 (1989).

16 See 132 Cong. Rec. S1377 (daily ed. Feb. 19, 1986). The U.S. resolution of ratification is reprinted in 80 AJIL 612 (1986).

17 Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary in the Gulf of Maine Area (Can./U.S.), Judgment, 1984 ICJ Rep. 246 (Oct. 12).

18 Frontier Dispute (Burk. Faso/Mali), 1986 ICJ Rep. 554 (Dec. 22).

19 Elettronica Sicula S.p.A. (ELSI) (U.S. v. Italy), 1989 ICJ Rep. 15 (July 20).

20 1992 ICJ Rep. 351 (Sept. 11).

21 Certain Phosphate Lands in Nauru (Nauru v. Austl.), Preliminary Objections, 1992 ICJ Rep. 240 (June 26).

22 See Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project (Hung./Slovakia), 1994 ICJ Rep. 151 (Order of Dec. 20).

23 On the important matter of the 1986 United Nations Joint Inspection Unit’s proposals for omission of separate opinions from the Reports in order to publish the court’s Judgments and Opinions in all the official UN languages, and the reasons for the Secretary-General’s decision not to proceed with this proposal, see Donner, supra note 8, at 360–62. See also Shabtai Rosenne, All’s Well That Ends Well. Or Is It? More on the Publications of the International Court of Justice, 84 AJIL 586 (1990).

See, however, the publication in 1992 of Summaries of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders of the International Court of Justice 1948–1991, available in all the official languages of the United Nations, and which it has been resolved will be brought up to date. This is not a publication of the Court. It cannot, therefore, be quoted against the actual text of Judgments, Advisory Opinions or Orders.

24 See Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute (El Sal./Hond.), Application to Intervene, 1990 ICJ Rep. 3 (Order of Feb. 28).

25 Id. at 4.

26 Id. at 6.

27 Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute (El Sal./Hond.), Application to Intervene, Judgment, 1990 ICJ Rep. 92, 137 (Sept. 13).

28 On which, see also the Separate Opinion of Judge Oda, id. at 138.

29 See paragraph 94 of the Chamber’s Judgment, 1990 ICJ Rep. at 132.

30 Id.

31 Id. at 135, para. 101.

32 Id. at 136, para. 102.

33 Id., para. 103.

34 Id.

35 UN Doc. A/44/PV.43, at 7–11 (1989).

36 Terms of Reference, Guidelines and Rules of the Secretary-General’s Trust Fund to Assist States in the Settlement of Disputes through the International Court of Justice, 28 ILM 1590, 1594, para. 17 (1989).

37 Id. at 1592, para. 6.

38 Arbitral Award of 31 July 1989 (Guinea-Bissau v. Sen.), Provisional Measures, 1990 ICJ Rep. 64, 67, para. 15 (Order of Mar. 2).

39 Id. at 70, para. 26.

40 Id.

41 Passage through the Great Belt (Fin. v. Den.), Provisional Measures, 1991 ICJ Rep. 12 (Order of July 29).

42 Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Yugo. (Serbia and Montenegro)), Provisional Measures, 1993 ICJ Rep. 3 (Order of Apr. 8).

43 Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Yugo. (Serbia and Montenegro)), Provisional Measures, 1993 ICJ Rep. 325, 341, para. 33 (Order of Sept. 13).

44 Western Sahara, 1975 ICJ Rep. 12 (Advisory Opinion of Oct. 16).

45 Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa) notwithstanding Security Council resolution 276 (1970), 1971 ICJ Rep. 16 (Advisory Opinion of June 21).

46 Western Sahara, 1975 ICJ Rep. at 77, para. 13 (Gros, J., declaration).

47 Fisheries Jurisdiction (UK v. Ice.), Merits, 1974 ICJ Rep. 3, 148–49 (July 25).

48 See Interpretation of Peace Treaties, 1950 ICJ Rep. 65, 72 (Advisory Opinion of Mar. 30).

49 Elettronica Sicula S.p.A. (ELSI) (U.S. v. Italy), 1989 ICJ Rep. 15 (July 20).

50 Gerald Fitzmaurice, The Future of Public International Law and of the International Legal System in the Circumstances of Today, Institut de Droit International, Livre du Centenaire, 1873–1973, at 196, 295 (1973).

51 South West Africa (Eth. v. S. Afr.; Liber, v. S. Afr.), Second Phase, 1966 ICJ Rep. 6 (July 18).