Name: Malik Ahmad Ashiq

Roll NO: MR-52

Department International Relations

Subject: International Law

Submitted to: Sir Dr Syed Nouman Ali Shah

Topic: The International Court of Justice (ICJ)

Abstract
The stagnation in the working of the International Court of Justice is just one of a few signs of
the disregard by Members of the United Nations of the turn of events and modernization of
descriptor law. There has been satisfying advancement in the codification and moderate
improvement of meaningful law through the International Law Commission and different
bodies, however considerable law without a sufficient descriptive word law will undoubtedly
need adequacy and uniform and unsurprising application.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ)

The World Court

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the vital legal organ of the United Nations. It was set
up by the UN Charter, endorsed on 26 June 1945 at San Francisco, in compatibility of one of the
basic roles of the United Nations: "to achieve by serene means, and in similarity with the
standards of equity and worldwide law, change or settlement of global questions or
circumstances which may prompt a break of the harmony".

The Court works under a Statute which shapes a necessary piece of the Charter, just as under
its own Rules. It began working in 1946, when it supplanted the Permanent Court of
International Justice (PCIJ), which had been set up in 1920 under the protection of the League
of Nations. The seat of the Court is in the Peace Palace at The Hague. Of the six head organs of
the United Nations, it is the only one not situated in New York.

In the field of public global law, the ICJ is the main legal organ with possibly both general and
widespread purview and it is frequently called "the World Court". Each of the 193 individuals
from the UN are consequently party to the ICJ. The Court works on equivalent balance with the
other five organs of the United Nations, in particular to bring "by tranquil means, and in
similarity with the standards of equity and global law, change or settlement of worldwide
questions or circumstances which may prompt a break of the peace". The official languages of
the Court are French and English

Organization and Functioning of the Court

The Judges
The Court is made out of 15 appointed authorities chose for nine-year terms of office by the UN
General Assembly and the UN Security Council (sitting freely of one another). Just a larger part
in both of these organs will ensure that an appointed authority be chosen. Races are held like
clockwork for one-third of the 15 seats, and resigning judges might be re-elected. The Members
of the Court don't address their state run administrations once chose, yet are autonomous
judges who make a serious assertion to practice their powers unbiasedly and honestly. As per
Article 2 of the Court's Statute, the Bench should be "made out of an assortment of free
adjudicators, chose paying little heed to their identity from among people of high upright
person, who have the capabilities needed in their individual nations for arrangement to the
most elevated legal workplaces, or are jurisconsults of perceived skill in worldwide law".
All States gatherings to the Statute of the Court reserve the privilege to propose competitors.
These recommendations are made not by the public authority of the State concerned, but
rather by a gathering comprising of the individuals from the Permanent Court of Arbitration
assigned by that State, (for example by the four legal advisers who can be called upon to fill in
as individuals from an arbitral court under the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907).

Each gathering can put ahead up to four up-and-comers, of whom not more than two might be
of its own identity, while the others might be from some other country. The Court may exclude
more than one public of a similar State. Notwithstanding which, the Court overall should mirror
the fundamental sorts of human advancement and the central general sets of laws of the
world. This rule is reflected in the dissemination of enrollment of the Court among the foremost
districts of the world. Right now there are 3 African appointed authorities, 2 adjudicators from
Latin America and the Caribbean, 3 from Asia, 5 from Western Europe and different States
(specifically, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), and 2 from Eastern Europe. Despite
the fact that there is no qualification to enrollment with respect to any country, the Court has
consistently included adjudicators of the identity of the extremely durable individuals from the
Security Council.

The current structure of the Court is as per the following. President: Peter Tomka (Slovakia);
Vice-President: Bernardo Sepulveda-Amor (Mexico); Judges: Hisashi Owada (Japan), Ronny
Abraham (France), Kenneth Keith (New Zealand), Mohamed Bennouna (Morocco), Leonid
Skotnikov (Russian Federation), Antonio A. Cançado Trindade (Brazil), Abdulqawi A. Yusuf
(Somalia), Christopher Greenwood (United Kingdom), Xue Hanqin (China), Joan E. Donoghue
(USA); Giorgio Gaja (Italy), Julia Sebutinde (Uganda), and Dalveer Bhandari (India).

Passes judgment on come from altogether different expert foundations and have changing
aptitude. Some are teachers, others public appointed authorities, previous ambassadors or
previous legitimate counsels to their public states. This blend of expert experience is advancing
for the Court in its choices making processes. In circumstances where the Court does exclude an
adjudicator having the ethnicity of a State party to a case, that State might select an individual
to sit as an appointed authority impromptu with the end goal of the case. Makes a decision
about specially appointed sit on conditions of complete uniformity with chose decided for those
specific procedures. Once chose, passes judgment on impromptu make similar vow as the
Members of the Court.

The Registry

The Court has its own secretariat, the Registry, which is going by the Registrar, Mr. Philippe
Couvreur from Belgium. He was chosen, as per Article 22 of the Rules of Court, in a "secret
polling form from among applicants proposed by Members of the Court" for a term of seven
years. Recorders might be reappointed; Mr. Couvreur is right now serving his second term of
office.

The Registrar does assorted obligations, set out in Article 26 of the Rules of Court, with the help
of around 120 staff individuals. He is liable for all offices and divisions of the Registry. His job is
triple: legal, discretionary and authoritative.

The Registrar's legal obligations prominently incorporate those connecting with the cases
submitted to the Court. The Registrar performs, among others, the accompanying undertakings:

1. He keeps the General List, all things considered, and is liable for recording records for the
situation records;

2. He deals with the procedures in the cases;

3. He is available face to face, or addressed by the Deputy-Registrar, at gatherings of the Court

and of the Chambers; he gives any help required and is liable for the readiness of reports or
minutes of such gatherings;

4. He signs all decisions, warning sentiments and orders of the Court, just as minutes;

5. He keeps up with relations with the gatherings to a case and has explicit obligation regarding
the receipt and transmission of specific reports, above all applications and exceptional
arrangements, just as totally composed pleadings;

6. He is answerable for the interpretation, printing and distribution of the Court's decisions,
warning feelings and orders, the pleadings, composed articulations and minutes of the public
sittings for each situation, and of such different records as the Court might direct to be
distributed; and

7. He has authority of the seals and stamps of the Court, of the files of the Court, and of such
different documents as might be shared with the Court (counting the chronicles of the
Permanent Court of International Justice and of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal).

The Registrar's political obligations incorporate the accompanying assignments:

1. He takes care of the Court's outer relations and goes about as the channel of
correspondence to and from the Court;
 2. He oversees outside correspondence, including correspondence connecting with cases, and
gives any interviews required;

3. He oversees relations of a discretionary sort, specifically with the organs and States
Members of the United Nations, with other global associations and with the Government of the
country wherein the Court has its seat;

4. He keeps up with relations with the neighborhood specialists and with the press;

5. He is liable for data concerning the Court's exercises and for the Court's distributions, just as
for public statements, in addition to other things.

The Registrar's regulatory obligations include:

1. The Registry's interior organization;

2. Monetary administration, as per the UN's monetary methods, and specifically planning and
carrying out the financial plan;

3. The oversight of every single managerial undertaking, including printing;

4. Making courses of action for such arrangement or check of interpretations and

understandings into the Court's two authority dialects (English and French) as the Court might
require.

Role of the Court

The Court has a twofold role:

1. To settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes between States (contentious
function)
2. To give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized UN organs and
agencies (advisory function).

Contentious cases
In contentious cases, only States may apply to and appear before the Court. The Member States
of the United Nations are so entitled. The Court has no jurisdiction to deal with applications
from individuals, from non-governmental organizations or private groups and it rules only on
the rights and obligations of States.
The Court is competent to entertain a dispute only if the States concerned have accepted its
jurisdiction in one or more of the following ways:
1. By the conclusion between them of a special agreement to submit the dispute to the Court;
2. By virtue of a jurisdictional clause, i.e., typically, when they are parties to a treaty containing a
provision whereby, in the event of a disagreement over its interpretation or application, one of
them may refer the dispute to the Court. Over 300 treaties or conventions contain a clause to
such effect;
3. Through the reciprocal effect of declarations made by them under the Statute whereby each
has accepted the jurisdiction of the Court as compulsory in the event of a dispute with another
State having made a similar declaration. The declarations of 66 States are at present in force, a
number of them having been made subject to the exclusion of certain categories of dispute. In
cases of doubt as to whether the ICJ has jurisdiction, it is the Court itself which decides.

Procedures
Written and Oral Phases
The ICJ decides in accordance with international treaties and conventions in force, international
custom, general principles of law and, as subsidiary means, judicial decisions and the teachings
of the most highly qualified publicists.

The procedure followed by the Court in contentious cases includes a written phase, during
which the Parties to a case present their arguments in written form. Different rounds are
possible (memorial/counter-memorial and rejoinder/reply). This process can be very lengthy,
depending on the complexity of the case (and may include thousands of pages). Following the
written phase, the oral phase consists of public hearings. During the oral phase it is not usual to
interrupt pleadings of the Parties with questions from the bench. But the application of the
judges’ right to put questions at the end of a hearing session has increased. Parties are given
the opportunity to reply to these questions either in writing or orally.
As a universal institution, the Court generally exercises its functions as a full court. However, at
the request of the parties, a case may be brought before a Chamber.

Deliberations and judgment

Once the oral phase is closed, judges begin deliberations. The deliberations of the Court are
collegial. All members of the Court are involved at every stage of the process of drafting a
judgment. The judgment is rendered, in general, between 6 to 9 months after the end of the
hearings.

The Court deliberates in camera. Following the deliberations, it delivers a judgment, which is
binding, final and without appeal for the parties to a case in open session. Cases of non-
compliance are extremely rare. In the exceptional case that one of the States involved fail to
comply with the decision of the Court, the other State may lay the matter before the UN
Security Council, which is empowered to recommend or decide upon the measures to be taken
to give effect to the judgment. Since 1946, the ICJ has delivered 113 judgments on disputes
concerning, inter alia, land frontiers, maritime boundaries, territorial sovereignty, the non-use
of force, violation of international humanitarian law, non-interference in the internal affairs of
States, diplomatic relations, hostage taking, the right of asylum, nationality, guardianship, rights
of passage and economic rights.

Advisory Opinions
The advisory procedure of the Court is open solely to international organizations. The only
bodies at present authorized to request advisory opinions of the Court are five organs of the
United Nations and 16 agencies of the UN family. On receiving a request, the Court decides
which States and organizations might provide useful information and gives them an opportunity
of presenting written or oral statements. The Court’s advisory procedure is otherwise modelled
on the contentious proceedings, and the sources of applicable law are the same. In principle,
the Court’s advisory opinions are consultative in character and are therefore not binding as
such on the requesting bodies. Certain instruments or regulations can, however, provide in
advance that the advisory opinion shall be binding.

Since 1946, the Court has given 27 Advisory Opinions, concerning, inter alia, the legal
consequences of the construction of a wall in the occupied Palestinian territory, admission to
United Nations membership, reparation for injuries suffered in the service of the United
Nations, the territorial status of South-West Africa (Namibia) and Western Sahara, judgments
rendered by international administrative tribunals, expenses of certain United Nations
operations, applicability of the United Nations Headquarters Agreement, the status of human
rights rapporteurs, and the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons.

Conclusion
As the principal judicial organ of the United Nation, it is an important facet for promoting and
maintaining peace. They regularly host visits by heads and dignitaries of states. It settles cases
of extreme international complexity in less than five years. The court accounts for less than 1%
of the UN’s budget. It is unique to the world. Through its judgement, opinions and orders, ICJ
lends its support to the United Nations so that it can achieve its primary purpose which is to
maintain and promote international peace and security.  

But despite having so much authority, it fails to achieve its purpose. In many cases, we have
seen that Countries do not comply with rulings from the International Court of Justice. Thus
despite being a giant in the world of International law, it seems to grow increasingly less
influential on States and regulating its compliance with international law. 
Reference
https://nvvn.nl/the-international-court-of-justice-icj/