International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) is situated in the Peace Place Hague, Netherlands. Its main role is to get to the bottom of legal arguments presented by countries that are members of the United Nations (UN) and also give counsel to legal matters presented by international organizations and UN general assembly.
ICJ is not the sole international court. There is another international court that is also situated in Hague Netherlands and its called International Criminal Court (ICC).
This court operates as an independent entity towards prosecuting people who are found guilty of causing public unrests that may lead to death. The ICJ is made up of 15 judges who are appointed by the UN Security Council and the general assembly and their tenure lasts for a period of nine years but it can be extended to include two more terms. These appointments are held after every three years (Pieter, 2003).
According to Statute of the International Court of Justice, the ICJ is accorded powers to create its own policies (UN Documents, n.d). All cases brought to the ICJ are handled in same way. The Rules of the international court of justice dictates the procedure of ICJ similar to those of the supreme court of Canada, where a complaint is filed by an applicant and in return the accused party too files its own version. The United States Supreme court is similar to the World Court, with the President being termed as Chief Justice.
If a respondent country does not want to surrender to the jurisdiction of the court it can request for a point of objection. The objections should be filed before the proceedings commence. The court then designates a public hearing to consider the objections presented by the respondent and gives a verdict at the end of that hearing.
Jurisdiction of the ICJ depends on the eagerness of the countries involved in a dispute to cooperate and participate in solving their problems. Conformity with ICJ is therefore voluntary. Burton (2005) argues that in many situations objections are caused by the absence of all concerned parties. The objections are also reserved to be considered in a public hearing. The verdict of the court favors the party that has presented the most sound and convincing statement with regard to the problem at hand.
In a situation where the third state welfare is in jeopardy, they may be allowed to intervene on the court’s verdict. The court has the authority to grant or deny such grant. The court then gives its verdict based on the judgment of the majority and there is no appeal once a verdict has been given. The judges can air their personal ruling but they must conform to the aims of the court.
All members of the UN are subject to this court and therefore the state that is being accused and the accusing state must be members of the United Nations. In contentious disputes the court grants a fair verdict with the aim of promoting unity between the offending and the accusing states. Pieter (2003) explains that these contentious issues do not involve individuals, or corporate entities.
An advisory opinion is an occasion that’s limited to certain UN bodies and agencies. During this occasion the ICJ invites countries that might provide relevant information. These countries are selected by looking at their exposure in judicial issues they provide counsel in solving complex legal issues.
There are various sources of international law. First, the court gives its verdict in reference to international conventions and customs and also the general elements of law that are acknowledged by civilized countries. Materials written by renowned publicists of various nations can also be used to provide guidelines in handling international disputes. Second, the court uses the principle laws set by civilized countries in the formulation of its jurisdiction.
Third, treaties act as the basis of forming laws understandable to many countries because treaties involve principles which consider the consent of all parties (Australian Government, n.d). The court can also compare its previous verdicts in arriving at a decision if the current dispute has been handled before by the court in the past. It’s very common to have a dispute of the same kind occurring more than once between different countries. This does not mean the court’s verdicts are always based on previous verdicts of the same issue.
Section 36(1) explains how the court can receive cases from countries based on special agreements between the countries concerned. This is very important because the accuser and the accused are ready to solve their issues otherwise if it’s only one state that’s ready to cooperate with ICJ, solving the dispute is almost impossible. Section 36(2) allows countries to declare their acknowledgement of the ICJ jurisdiction (UN Documents, n.d). This acknowledgement is sometimes irrelevant because conformity with ICJ is voluntary.
References
Australian Government (n.d). Treaties in the Global Environment: Sources of International Law – The Place of Treaties. Web.
Burton, B. (2005). Australia, East Timor strike oil, gas deal. Asia Times.
Pieter, H.F.B. (2003). The UN General Assembly Requests a World Court Advisory Opinion on Israel’s Separation Barrier. American society of International law Insights.
UN Documents. (n.d). Statute of the International Court of Justice. Web.