1.

Judicial decisions
Judicial decisions are regarded as subsidiary means of determining the rules of law according to
Article 38 (1)(d). despite existence of common law between countries, there also exists the
doctrine of international law binding precedent. There is also an express provision by the ICJ
Statue which gives an express application of previous judgement or decision from other courts to
be used in prevailing issues for the parties involved in a dispute.
Nevertheless, the ICJ has been using the past decisions frequently in most of its tribunals. This
makes use of the past cases to guide in making the content of international law hence making it a
mistake to assume that the subsidiary has less importance in source of international law. The
only problem involved in application of judicial decisions is that Article (38) (d) does not give a
defined distinction between international and national decisions by courts. Since the former
decisions are considered the most authoritative international law source evidence, they are not
mostly or commonly handled by the national courts as seen in the legal obligation of states to
provide sovereign immunity. Even though, decisions made by the state courts are part of the
indicators of the sources of international law which directly contribute to formation of customary
international law which are the basis of international law source.