The ICJ is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. Pursuant to provisions in various international agreements (including the Statute of the ICJ, the organic document establishing the ICJ), the ICJ is charged with resolving various disputes between States. States can recognise compulsory jurisdiction of the Court; in doing so, many States exempt certain classes of cases from compulsory jurisdiction. This partial exemption is controversial but has been upheld. The ICJ can also issue non-binding Advisory Opinions at the request of UN bodies.
There are 15 Members of the Court, who are elected by the UN Member States and other States Parties to the Statute of the ICJ. In some instances, Judges Ad Hoc may sit on an ICJ panel to hear and decide a case. Pursuant to Article 38 of the ICJ Statute, the Court may consider a variety of legal sources in deciding cases:
- a. international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing rules expressly recognised by the contesting states;
- b. international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law;
- c. the general principles of law recognised by civilized nations;
- d. subject to the provisions of Article 59, judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations, as subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law.
The ICJ differs from many other international tribunals in that:
- ICJ judges must be continuously at the disposal of the Court and cannot sit on other tribunals;
- the ICJ is permanent in its constitution and its established rules; and
- Parties do not have to pay fees or administrative costs, which are covered by the UN.
Recognising the rapid growth of international environmental law and the growing number of international cases that touched on environmental matters, the ICJ established a specialised Chamber for Environmental Matters in July 1993. The Chamber consists of a panel of seven ICJ judges. The Chamber is empowered to hear environmental cases only with the consent of the parties to the case. As a practical matter, though, the ICJ’s environmental cases generally proceed through the standard ICJ process, and have yet to take advantage of the specialised Chamber.
For more information, see http://www.icj-cij.org