Question

Explain what are the strengths and the weaknesses of the World Court? Is it a successful institution?

Answer 1

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), also referred to as World Court, is the United Nations' (UN) principal judicial organ. The ICJ resolves disputes between states and offers guidance on international legal issues referred to by the UN. It acts as a source of international law, through its judgments and rulings.

A second 1907 Hague Peace Conference, including most of the sovereign states around the world, amended the Convention and strengthened the laws regulating arbitral proceedings before the PCA. The United States, Great Britain and Germany proposed a joint plan during this conference for a permanent court whose judges should serve full-time. Since the delegates were unable to decide on how the judges should be chosen, the matter was indefinitely shelved pending a later convention resolution to be adopted.

Since international law developed, a general global legal system has begun to take shape in which states can seek claims against each other. The rudiments of such a scheme are now in the World Court, although its scope is minimal and its light on the caseload. It is a branch of the United Nations. It is a jury of 15 judges, chosen for terms of nine years. It is customary for permanent Security Council members to always have one of their nationals as judge. The greatest drawback is that states have not agreed to subject themselves to its control in a systematic manner.