World Court

IDENTIFICATION: International Court of Justice

PLACE: The Hague, the Netherlands

SIGNIFICANCE: Legal systems have historically been established solely within sovereign nations. The International Court of Justice—or World Court, as it is better known—handles cases among nations and international disputes that are beyond the scope of any one nation’s justice system.

Although the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was created as part of the United Nations after World War II, it was neither the first attempt to establish a mechanism to arbitrate disputes among countries nor the first World Court. However, it is the first court to become truly global in membership and recognition. The weakness of the court is that it cannot coerce participation by its sovereign member countries, nor can it enforce judgments. Even with these weaknesses, however, the court is seen by most to play a positive role within the international community.

Forerunners to the World Court include the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which was established in 1899 to assist in cases of international arbitration and other related matters. The first international body with independently appointed justices who heard cases brought before it was the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ). Operating from 1922 to 1946, this court was created in conjunction with the League of Nations but was not formally part of the League.

Post-World War II plans for the United Nations included the International Court of Justice. The new World Court was understood to be a successor to the PCIJ with broader powers. In contrast to its predecessor body, the new World Court was created as an integral part of the United Nations. In 2024, it recognized the right of 193 sovereign nations to bring cases before it.

The court comprises fifteen justices who serve nine-year terms. One-third of them are elected every three years, and no two justices may be from the same country. The justices are elected by the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council, which vote separately on nominations. The function of the court is to settle disputes between independent countries (contentious cases) and to give opinions on international matters, as requested by agencies within the United Nations (advisory opinions).

The court hears contentious cases between two nations only when the governments of both nations agree to accept the court’s jurisdiction over their dispute. From its inception through mid-2004, the court delivered seventy-nine contentious-case rulings and twenty-five advisory opinions. The court’s activities were not spread evenly over those years, as its activities reflected changing global political moods. For example, between July, 1962, and August, 1971—at the height of Cold War tensions—only one new case was brought before the court and only one advisory opinion was sought. Between 1990 and 2004—after the Cold War ended—more than forty-five contentious cases (many interrelated) were brought before the court; however, the court did not rule in all these cases. Since its founding, the court has considered about two hundred cases as of 2024.

As the world’s nations were becoming more comfortable with the idea of international tribunals, a new international court came into existence in 1998: the International Criminal Court . Completely independent of the World Court, this new court deals exclusively with matters of international crimes.

Bibliography

Broomhall, Bruce. International Justice and the Criminal Court: Between Sovereignty and the Rule of Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Cassese, Antonio. International Criminal Law, 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Kolba, Boris. International Courts. Milwaukee: World Almanac Library, 2004.

Meyer, Howard N. The World Court in Action: Judging Among the Nations. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.

"States Entitled to Appear Before the Court." International Court of Justice, 2024, www.icj-cij.org/states-entitled-to-appear. Accessed 11 July 2024.