The Statute of the UN International Court of Justice is an integral part of the UN Charter , defines the organizational principles, procedures, competence and procedure of the UN International Court of Justice . It is the legal basis for the activities of the Court [1] [2] .
| Statute of the International Court of Justice | |
|---|---|
 Logo of the International Court of Justice | |
| Type of contract | international treaty |
| date of signing | June 26, 1945 |
| • a place | San Francisco |
| Entry into force | October 24, 1945 |
| Signed | 50 states |
| Parties | 193 states |
| Storage | National Archives and Records Administration (USA) |
| Status | acting |
| Languages | Chinese , French , Russian , English , Spanish |
| Site | icj-cij.org/homepage/en/icjstatute.php |
Content
History
Permanent Court of International Justice
The first international judicial body dedicated to the peaceful settlement of disputes was the Permanent Court of International Justice (PPJC), established in 1920 under the auspices of the League of Nations .
The Chamber was created and funded by the League of Nations, however, the Chamber was not part of the League, and its Statute was not part of the League Statute. The state, which became a member of the League, did not automatically become a party to the PPPM statute. On the other hand, several hundred agreements have been signed providing for the jurisdiction of the MNRE in disputes related to these agreements [3] .
In the period from 1922 to 1940, the PPMP issued decisions on 29 state disputes and adopted 27 advisory opinions, of which almost all were implemented. The chamber also made a significant contribution to the development of international law. Her activity was interrupted by World War II, and then, in 1946, the House was dissolved with the League of Nations. The successor of the Chamber was the UN International Court of Justice [1] .
Establishment of the International Court of Justice
On October 9, 1944, at the conclusion of the Dumbarton-Oakes Conference , "Proposals for the Establishment of a Universal International Organization" were adopted, including provisions on the establishment of an international judicial body within such an organization. To prepare a draft statute for a future judiciary, the United States convened a United Nations Bar Association of 44 states in Washington on behalf of the four states represented at Dumbarton Oaks in April 1945. The project, developed by this committee on the basis of the Statute of the PSMP, was presented to the United Nations Conference on the Creation of an International Organization, which opened in San Francisco on April 25, 1945 [4] .
At this Conference, it was decided to create a new judiciary, which, in accordance with the final adoption of Article 92 of the Charter of the United Nations, “is the main judicial organ of the United Nations” and operates in accordance with its Statute. In accordance with the same provision, the Statute of the International Court of Justice, annexed to the Charter of the United Nations, forms an integral part of the Charter. The Statute was adopted unanimously with the Charter at the end of the Conference on June 25, 1945 and entered into force in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 110 of the Charter on October 24, 1945 [4] .
For the first time, the Court met on April 3, 1946 at the Peace Palace and on April 6 elected its President, Vice-President and Registrar. The first President of the Court was Judge José Gustavo Guerrero (El Salvador), who was President of the PMPP until its dissolution. On April 18, 1946, the International Court of Justice held its first public meeting [4] .
United Nations Charter of the International Court of Justice
The UN Charter contains Chapter XIV “The International Court of Justice”, consisting of five articles (Articles 92 - 96), which identify the most important general provisions concerning the Court.
Section 92 provides:
The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It acts in accordance with the attached Statute, which is based on the Statute of the Permanent Chamber of International Justice and forms an integral part of this Charter.
Article 93, paragraph 1, determines that all UN member states are ipso facto parties to the statute of the Court [Comm 1] . This is a significant difference from the state of affairs that existed during the League of Nations, when a member state of the League might not have been a party to the PPMP statute [Comm 2] .
According to Article 93, paragraph 2, a state that is not a member of the United Nations can also become a party to the statute on the conditions that are determined in each individual case by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council [Comm 3] .
Article 94 obliges states to implement the decisions of the Court in those cases in which they are parties. In cases where a party to a case does not comply with a decision of the Court, the other party may apply to the Security Council, which in turn can make recommendations or take measures to enforce the decision.
Article 96 gives the General Assembly and the Security Council the right to seek advisory opinions from the International Court of Justice on any legal matter . Other UN bodies and specialized organizations that have received the relevant permission of the General Assembly may also request advisory opinions, but only on such legal issues that arise within their scope of activity [Comm 4] .
Structure and Composition of the Statute
The statute is divided into 5 chapters and contains a total of 70 articles.
The statute begins with article 1 , proclaiming:
The International Court of Justice, established by the Charter of the United Nations as the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, shall be formed and act in accordance with the following judgments of this Statute.
The remaining 69 articles are grouped in 5 chapters:
- Chapter I: Organization of the court (arts. 2-33)
- Chapter II: Competence of the court (arts. 34-38)
- Chapter III: Judicial Procedure (Articles 39-64)
- Chapter IV: Advisory Opinions (Articles 65-68)
- Chapter V: Amendments (Articles 69-70).
Contents of the Statute
CHAPTER I: Organization of the Court
Articles 2–33 of the Statute govern the organization of the Court.
The court consists of 15 members, while “it cannot include two citizens of the same state”. Nominations are not made by states, but by national groups of the Permanent Court of Arbitration . The election of the members of the Court is independently carried out by the General Assembly and the Security Council of the Court.
Judges are elected for 9 years and can be re-elected (Art. 13). They are not allowed to perform any political or administrative duties, they "cannot devote themselves to any other occupation of a professional nature." In the exercise of their judicial duties, judges enjoy diplomatic privileges and immunities. The court shall elect its President and Vice-President for three years; subsequently, they may be re-elected (Article 21).
The seat of the Court is established by The Hague , but the Court is not forbidden to “sit and perform its functions in other places in all cases when the Court finds it desirable” (Article 22). A court may sit either in its entirety or form chambers of three or more judges.
Article 31 contains decisions regarding the right of a party (state) to be represented in the Court by a judge consisting of her citizenship. If the Court already has judges in the nationality of both one and the other side, then these judges "retain the right to participate in the hearings of the proceedings before the Court." If the Court does not have a judge who has the citizenship of any of the parties, then she has the right to elect a judge to participate in this case [Comm 5] . Judges so elected "participate in decision-making on an equal footing with their colleagues."
Article 32 governs the wages of the members of the Court and its President, Vice-President and Registrar, and article 33 determines that the expenses of the Court are borne by the United Nations.
CHAPTER II: Competence of the Court
Articles 34–38 of the Statute govern the competence of the Court.
Article 34 establishes a general provision according to which only states can be parties to a case before a court. It follows, in particular, that the UN has no right to complain to its main judicial body.
Article 36 governs the jurisdiction of the Court in specific disputes. Paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article indicate three ways in which a case can be brought before the Court. These include:
- Initiation of the case by agreement of the parties.
- Initiation of a case on the basis of a previously concluded agreement providing for the transfer of disputes of a certain category to the Court by a unilateral application of one of the parties.
- Initiation of a case on the basis of a statement by a State party to the Statute of the Court declaring the jurisdiction of the Court to be binding on any other state that has undertaken the same obligation.
At the same time, article 36, paragraph 6 of the Statute clarifies that “in the event of a dispute over the jurisdiction of a case to the Court, the matter shall be decided by the determination of the Court”.
Article 38, which is considered one of the most important in the Statute [8] , in paragraph 1 indicates the sources of law applied by the court. In addition to them, Art. 38, para. 2 grants the Court the right “to resolve the case ex aequo et bono if the parties agree to this” [Comm 6] .
CHAPTER III: Legal proceedings
The articles of the chapter determine the procedures and procedure for legal proceedings. The official languages of the Court are French and English (Article 39, paragraph 1). However, at the request of any of the parties, the Court is obliged to grant it the right to use a language other than French and English (Article 39, paragraph 3).
Hearings in the Court shall be held in public, unless “a different judgment of the Court has been followed or if the parties do not require the public to be admitted” (Article 46) and the meetings of the Court are closed from the public and kept secret (Article 54, paragraph 3) . Moreover, “all issues are resolved by a majority of the votes of the judges present” (Article 55, paragraph 1), and in the event of an equal number of votes, “the vote of the Chairperson or the replacement Judge gives an advantage” (Article 55, paragraph 1).
Article 60 establishes that the decision of the Court is final and not subject to appeal. At the same time, it is allowed to appeal to the Court with a request to review the decision, but “only on the basis of newly discovered circumstances, which by their nature may have a decisive influence on the outcome of the case and which, when making the decision, were not known to the Court or to the party requesting review, provided that such ignorance was not the result of negligence ”(Article 61, paragraph 1). A request for a review of the case must be made before the expiration of a six-month period after the discovery of new circumstances (Article 61, paragraph 4); in any case, the possibility of filing a request is limited to ten years from the date of the decision (Article 61, paragraph 5).
Article 41 stands out by its content among the remaining articles of chapter III, dealing with a more important issue than the issue of procedure. This article provides the Court with the right to indicate “interim measures that must be taken to ensure the rights of each of the parties” with immediate communication of the proposed measures to the parties and the Security Council.
CHAPTER IV: Advisory Opinions
Articles 65 to 68 contain provisions on what may be the subject of advisory opinions of the Court. Article 65 affirms the general principle that “the Court may give advisory opinions on any legal issue, at the request of any institution authorized to make such requests by the Charter of the United Nations itself or in accordance with this Charter” [Comm 7] .
CHAPTER V: Amendments
Articles 69 and 70, which make up chapter V, speak of amendments to the Constitution. Since the Statute is an integral part of the UN Charter, Art. 69 determines that amendments to the Statute are introduced in the same manner as amendments to the Charter. In addition, given that states that are not members of the UN may be parties to the Statute, Art. 69 establishes that the procedure for amending the Statute is subject to all the rules established in relation to these states by the General Assembly.
The final article of the Statute (Article 70) gives the Court the right to itself propose amendments to the Statute, by submitting them in writing to the UN Secretary General .
Notes
Comments
- ↑ ipso facto ( lat. Ipso facto - literally "by the fact itself") - by virtue of the fact itself, by virtue of this alone or by itself [5] .
- ↑ That was exactly the situation of the USSR from 1934 to 1939.
- ↑ Before becoming members of the UN, under such conditions, the participants to the Statute were Switzerland (1948-2002), Liechtenstein (1950-1990), San Marino (1954-1992), Japan (1954-1952) and Nauru (1988 -1999). As of 2014, only UN member states are parties to the Statute [6] .
- ↑ Currently, the right to seek advisory opinions is granted to three bodies ( Economic and Social Council , Trusteeship Council and Intersessional Committee of the General Assembly) and 16 UN agencies ( UNESCO , International Labor Organization , World Health Organization , World Bank , International Civil Aviation Organization and others) [7] .
- ↑ Such judges are commonly referred to as ad hoc judges.
- ↑ ex aequo et bono - in fairness. That is, in this case, when making a decision, the Court is not bound by the rule of law, but is guided by considerations of justice and common sense [9] .
- ↑ The opinion of the Court is only advisory in nature and as such is not binding [8] .
Sources
- ↑ 1 2 Glebov I.N. International law. - M .: Bustard, 2006 .-- 368 p. - ISBN 5-7107-9517-8 .
- ↑ Lukashuk I.I. International law. The special part. - M .: Walters Clover, 2005 .-- 544 p. - ISBN 5-466-00104-X .
- ↑ International Court of Justice. The main judicial organ of the United Nations: questions and answers . - New York: UN , 2001. - S. 58-59. - 80 p. Archived on September 6, 2015. Archived September 6, 2015 on Wayback Machine
- ↑ 1 2 3 Statute of the International Court of Justice (history) . United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law . UN. Date of treatment August 30, 2014.
- ↑ Babichev N.T., Borovskoy Ya. M. Ipso facto // Latin-Russian and Russian-Latin Dictionary of Winged Words and Expressions. - M .: Russian Language, 1982.
- ↑ Parties. Special cases ( inaccessible link) . United Nations Treaty Collection . UN. Date of treatment August 31, 2014. Archived on September 3, 2014.
- ↑ Report of the International Court of Justice (August 1, 2012 - July 31, 2013) (inaccessible link) . General Assembly. Official reports . UN Date of treatment August 30, 2014. Archived on August 26, 2014.
- ↑ 1 2 Satou E. Guide to Diplomatic Practice. Translation from English. - M .: Institute of International Relations , 1961. - 496 p.
- ↑ Tolstoy V. L. Course in international law . - M .: Walters Clover, 2009 .-- 1056 p. - ISBN 978-5-466-00401-4 .
Links
- Statute of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations (Russian)
- UN International Court of Justice (rus.) On the UN website
- Official site of the UN International Court of Justice (rus.)
- Official website of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations
- Zimmerman A. , Tomuschat C. , Oellers-Frahm K. , Tams CJ The Statute of the International Court of Justice: A Commentary . - Oxford: Oxford University Press , 2012 .-- 1808 p. - ISBN 978-019-969299-6 .