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Guia de Estudos / Study Guide / Guia de Estudios
History of the Court
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the most important
judicial organ of the United Nations (UN) and
it was established in 1945, the same year as the UN,
through the United Nations Charter 2 . The Court began
its activities the following year as a replacement of the
Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ). The
International Court of Justice is the successor of the
Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) which
was created in 1922 and formally dissolved in 1946.
The PCIJ was the “first permanent international tribunal
with general jurisdiction” 3 and contributed towards
the development of the international law.
Attached to the United Nations Charter, is the Statute
of the International Court of Justice. The Statute verses
over the organization of the Court, its competence and
procedures. The Court’s composition is of 15 judges who
are elected by two of the United Nations organs: the Security
Council (SC) and the General Assembly (GA). To be
elected, the candidate must receive an absolute majority
(2/3 of 15) of the votes in the general Assembly and
Security Council, according to article 10 of the Statute. 4
The Court is composed by independent judges,“(…)
elected regardless of their nationality from among persons
of high moral character, who possess the qualifications
required in their respective countries for appointment
to the highest judicial offices, or are jurisconsults
of recognized competence in international law.” 5
In a time where the United Nations was searching for
methods to solve disputes between countries in a
peaceful manner, ICJ was created as the as an attempt
to decide disputes using international law as instrument
and the creation of the Court represented the
culmination of a long development of methods for the
pacific settlement of international disputes, the origins
of which can be traced back to classical times. 6
In 1943, after a conference held amongst the United
States, the United Kingdom, China and the Soviet Union
(USSR), the need for an International Organization
was acknowledged. As a consequence of the conference,
these States emitted a declaration that concerned
the exigency
(…) of establishing at the earliest practicable date
a general international organization, based on the
principle of the sovereign equality of all peace-loving
States, and open to membership by all such States,
large and small, for the maintenance of international
peace and security. 7
As an aftermath of the declaration, in October/1944,
proposals for the foundation of an International Organization
were published, and also among them, was
the establishment of an international court of justice.
The next year, in 1945, a meeting was arranged to prepare
a draft of the Statute of the Court of Justice, the
future ICJ. Such meeting was conducted by a North
American jurist, G. H. Hackworth, and had the presence
of 44 jurists, each representing their own State.
As a base for the ICJ’s Statute, the PCIJ’s Statute was
used, and because of that inspiration, the text was not
completely original.
The final form of the Statute was discussed by 50 States
at the San Francisco Conference, the same which discussed
the United Nations Charter.
The Conference decided against compulsory jurisdiction
and in favor of the creation of an entirely new court,
which would be a principal organ of the United Nations,
on the same footing as the General Assembly, the Security
Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship
Council and the Secretariat, and with the Statute
annexed to and forming part of the Charter. 8
On the 31 st of January of 1946 the resignation of all PCIJ
judges occurred, and, on February 6th 1946, the first
members of the ICJ were elected. The formal dissolution
of the PCIJ happened in April and also, the first meeting
of the ICJ took place. The Court’s first President was
Judge José Gustavo Guerrero (El Salvador), who happened
to be PCIJ’s last. In 1946, an inaugural public sitting,
which was the first official sitting, was held and so,
in the following year, the first case was presented and
the International Court of Justice started its activities.
The Court may be solicited to judge legal disputes between
States, which are known as “contentious cases”
and also, the court may be claimed to give its advisory
opinion, according to article 65 of the Statute 9 and if
requested by United Nations organs may also serve on
internal issues. An ‘advisory opinion’ is an advice that
the Court gives to those organs or States that request
one. For example, if the Security Council is not reach-
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