International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) was set up by the UN Charter in 1945 (Article 92) and sits at The Hague. It has fifteen judges elected for nine-year terms by the General Assembly and the Security Council. Only States may be parties to contentious cases, and only with their consent, given by special agreement, a clause in a treaty, or a declaration under the optional clause in Article 36(2) of its Statute. It also gives advisory opinions to UN organs and agencies.

Article 38 of its Statute lists the sources of international law it applies: treaties, custom, general principles and, as subsidiary means, judicial decisions and writings. It does not try individuals; that is the work of the International Criminal Court. India won the Jadhav case (India v. Pakistan, 2019), where the ICJ found a breach of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Example

Since India and Pakistan were both parties to the Optional Protocol on consular disputes, the International Court of Justice had jurisdiction in the Jadhav case.

In Indian law

• Article 92, Charter of the United Nations; Articles 36 and 38, Statute of the ICJ
• Jadhav Case (India v. Pakistan) (ICJ, 2019)

See also

International Criminal Court · advisory opinion · customary international law · compromis

Read more in the study notes

• Climate change and biodiversity treaties, the Biological Diversity Act and transboundary pollution (Environmental Law)
• Origin and development of human rights (Human Rights Law and Practice)
• The UN Charter and the UN human rights machinery (Human Rights Law and Practice)
• The European system: the Convention and the European Court of Human Rights (Human Rights Law and Practice)
• The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, 1883 (Intellectual Property Rights I)
• The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, 1886 (Intellectual Property Rights II)