The International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.

The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). Of the six principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one not located in New York (United States of America).

The Court’s role is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.

The Court is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of office of nine years by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council. It is assisted by a Registry, its administrative organ. Its official languages are English and French.

The Registry is the permanent administrative secretariat of the Court. It is accountable to the Court alone. It is headed by a Registrar, assisted by a Deputy-Registrar.

Since the Court is both a court of justice and an international organization, the Registry’s tasks are not only those of a service helping in the administration of justice - with sovereign States as litigants - but also those of an international secretariat. Its activities are both judicial and diplomatic, as well as administrative.

The Registry consists of three Departments (Legal Matters; Linguistic Matters; Information), a number of technical Divisions (Personnel/Administration; Finance; Publications; Library; IT; Archives, Indexing and Distribution; Text Processing and Reproduction; Security and General Assistance) and the secretaries to Members of the Court. It currently comprises some 100 officials, either permanent or holding fixed-term contracts, appointed by the Court or the Registrar.

All officials take an oath of loyalty and discretion on commencing their duties. Essentially, they enjoy the same privileges and immunities as members of comparable missions of diplomatic rank in The Hague. They are subject to Staff Regulations, which are virtually identical to the United Nations Staff Regulations, and to Instructions for the Registry. Their conditions of employment, salaries and pension rights are the same as those of United Nations officials of the equivalent category and grade; the costs are borne by the United Nations.

The Court has a twofold role: to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States (contentious cases) and to give advisory opinions (advisory procedures) on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.

In contentious proceedings, when a dispute is brought before the Court by a unilateral application filed by one State against another State, the names of the parties in the official title of the case are separated by the abbreviation v. for the Latin versus (e.g., Cameroon v. Nigeria). When a dispute is submitted to the Court on the basis of a special agreement between two States, the names of the parties are separated by an oblique stroke (e.g., Indonesia/Malaysia).

The first case entered in the General List of the Court (Corfu Channel (United Kingdom v. Albania)) was submitted on 22 May 1947.

Between 22 May 1947 and 29 April 2022, 183 cases were entered in the General List.