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The Docket and Decision-Making Process of the International Court of Justice - WAMR 2013 Vol. 7, No. 1

Author(s): 
Stephen M. Schwebel
Page Count: 
16 pages
Media Description: 
1 PDF Download
Published: 
June, 2013
Jurisdictions: 
International
Practice Areas: 
Court Decisions,
International Institutions and Rules,
ICJ,
States as Parties
Author Detail: 

STEPHEN M. SCHWEBEL has been a judge on the International Court of Justice since 1981, and has been the Court's President since 1997. From 1974 to 1981 he served as deputy legal advisor, Department of State, and was a member of the International Law Commission from 1977 to 1981. Between 1962 and 1980, he participated as associate representative, representative, counsel or deputy agent of the United States in various cases before the ICJ. Educated at Harvard College and Yale Law School, Schwebel has taught at Harvard Law School, Cambridge University, the Australian National University, the Hague Academy of
International Law, the School of Advanced International Studies, and the Johns Hopkins University where he was professor of International Law and International Organizations. Judge Schwebel may be contacted at judgeschwebel@aol.com.

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Description: 

Originally from World Arbitration And Mediation Review (WAMR)

My subject today is the World Court as it is familiarly known, that is, the ICJ. When I was asked to choose a topic I responded, “The Docket and Decision-making Process of the International Court” because I thought those two elements could perhaps most graphically give you some sense of what the Court is about. The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the UN. Its Statute is an appendix to, and an integral part of, the UN Charter. But the Court antedates the UN. It was founded under the auspices of the League of Nations; the Covenant of the League directed the League to take steps to institute a Permanent Court of International Justice. That was energetically done at the outset of the life of the League by a distinguished committee of jurists, of which Elihu Root, formerly American Secretary of State and Secretary of War and a great lawyer of his day, was a member. It drafted the Statute of the Court which in substance exists today. The Statute of the current Court is a redrafted, but only modestly redrafted, version of the Statute of the Permanent Court. The PCIJ as it was constituted in 1922 was a cherished objective of the peace movement of that era.