what is compulsory jurisdiction of icj

Compulsory Jurisdiction: –Compulsory Jurisdiction means that type of jurisdiction which the Court enjoys without the consent of the parties. B. Most of the declarations submitted to that effect are replete with reservations. States not members of the United Nations parties to the Statute States not parties to the Statute to which the Court may be open Basis of the Court’s jurisdiction Declarations recognizing the jurisdiction of the Court as compulsory Still, only 74 states have accepted the Court’s compulsory jurisdiction. Q ICJ Intro- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is a principal Judicial arm of the United Nations. Alternatively the Court has what is called “compulsory” jurisdiction under what is called the “Optional Clause”: Statute, Art 36 (2). In a specific case, the Court has jurisdiction if the Parties have consented to the Court settling their dispute. 46 In Trial of Pakistani Prisoners of War (Pak. Jurisdiction of the Court is based on the con-sent of the States to which it is open. Also known as the “World Court”, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. The Optional Protocol provides for jurisdiction in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) when any Argument of Mr. Bakhtiar, Chief Counsel for the Government of Pakistan, 1973 ICJ Pleadings (Trial of Pakistani Prisoners of War) 54–55 (June 4, 1973). 70 UN Member States have acknowledged the ICJ’s compulsory jurisdiction, implying that any universal legitimate debate including all States will be submitted to the Court, provided that all States gathering to the question before the ICJ have acknowledged its compulsory jurisdiction. The idea that the optional clause should be accepted by all States with the least possible reservation and without any fixed period of validity seems * Member of the International Court of Justice since 6 Feb. 1976; re-elected as from 6 Feb. 1985 and from 6 Feb. 1994. Contentious Jurisdiction . Compulsory Jurisdiction of the ICJ reservations. Compulsory jurisdiction Voluntary Article 36 (2) of the International Court of Justice Statute states that countries can choose to submit to the compulsory jurisdiction of the court or retain their right to consent to its jurisdiction in special cases. In theory, any dispute involving international law can come before the ICJ; in practice, a few types of dispute have dominated its docket. Jurisdiction based on compromissory clauses, however, appears to be a more important source of the Court's jurisdiction. Many international agreements contain compromissory clauses in which the parties agree to submit disputes to the ICJ or other forums for third-party dispute settle- * Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University. Article 36 of the Statute of the ICJ “1. Conversely, most developed countries accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ. Court cannot initiate any proceeding merely because one party has filed a case. Court’s compulsory jurisdiction has been accepted by a certain number of States or by certain specified States.10 As is provided by paragraph 2 of Article 36., a State recognizes the Court’s compulsory jurisdiction in respect of States “assuming the same obligation”. In voluntary jurisdiction, the consent is given before the concurrence of the dispute. When the disputant parties themselves refer the dispute to the Court, there is no question about the Curts rights to take up the case. The International Court of Justice has two types of jurisdictions. Jurisdiction The issue of compulsory versus voluntary jurisdiction has cropped in a number of cases that the ICJ has dealt with in recent years. It refers to a jurisdiction that does not require a judicial proceeding, as the granting letters of administration and receiving the probate of wills gives the assent of the parties for the jurisdiction of the Court in advance. International organisations, other authorities, and private individuals are not entitled to institute proceedings before the ICJ. 2. It states that, “The jurisdiction of the court comprises of all the cases which the parties refer to it.” Indeed, few Latin American countries have acquiesced to the jurisdiction of the ICJ. Compulsory Jurisdiction– where the concerned parties are bound by a treaty or a convention the Court has compulsory or obligatory jurisdiction. International Court of Justice [ICJ] is a court established by the League of Nations under the UN charter which was formed to have an international judicial body which could give non-partial decisions over the disputes between nation[s] and with an advisory jurisdiction as and when asked for. After presenting specific questions, such as the essence of declarations accepting the optional clause, the principle of reciprocity, reservations, formal conditions, etc., the author concentrates in this chapter on the characteristics of the legal system created on the basis of the optional clause. 9 In essence, ‘ compulsory jurisdiction ’ of the ICJ refers to the capacity of the Court to decide – with bind-ing force – disputes between states upon the motion of one of the parties to the dispute: R. Szafarz , The Compulsory Jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (1993), at 3. JURISDICTION IN CONSULAR CASES: REASONS AND CONSEQUENCES JOHN QUIGLEY* INTRODUCTION In 2005, the United States withdrew from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations Concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes. 1. A 2008 study found that the United States was a party to more than 80 international agreements with ICJ … The ICJ has two types of jurisdictions: 1. Before evaluating the jurisdiction of the ICJ, the Article#36 (1) of the Statute must be considered. compulsory jurisdiction only for a narrow range of cases. The texts of declarations made under Article 36, paragraph 2, of the Statute, which, based on the information provided by the depository, had not expired or been withdrawn or replaced on 1 January 2018, can be found … When is the jurisdiction of the ICJ compulsory? Contentious Jurisdiction is classified into three categories. Advisory Jurisdiction It provides that the court can decide the case with the consent of both the parties. 1. 251 In classic international law there is no concept of the Compulsory Jurisdiction of the Court, but recently it has been contended that no the time has reached to confide the Court with compulsory jurisdiction. The ICJ’s jurisdiction takes three structures: compulsory, special agreement and treaty based. India and Pakistan have filed these declarations in 1974 and 2017, respectively. No permanent member of the security council remains subject to compulsory jurisdiction except the U.K.. 6 For a good early discussion, see Bleicher, ICJ Jurisdiction: Some New Considerations and a Proposed American Declaration, 6 COLUM. Nicaragua Case (Jurisdiction and Admissibility) ICJ Rep 1984 p 392. The External Affairs Minister of India submitted a Declaration on 27 September 2019 accepting as compulsory ipso facto and without any special agreement the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in conformity with article 36 paragraph 2 of the ICJ Statute. ; and D'Amato, Modifying U.S. Acceptance of the Compulsory Jurisdiction of the World Court, 79 AJIL 385 (1985). J. (c) Compulsory jurisdiction in legal disputes The Statute provides that a State may recognize as compulsory, in relation to any other State accepting the same obligation, the jurisdiction of the Court in legal disputes. And as per Article 37 of the statute, under which they agreed to refer the matter to a tribunal or to the Permanent Court of International Justice and matters are then referred to the International Court of Justice. The Court can only deal with a dispute when the States concerned have recognized its jurisdiction. The declarations recognizing the jurisdiction of the Court as compulsory take the form of a unilateral act of the State concerned and are deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. 59, 60) once the parties have consented to its jurisdiction and the court has rendered a decision. 2See id. On the ICJ and its compulsory jurisdiction On the 18 April 2017, Pakistan notified the United Nations depository of a new declaration under the Optional Clause to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), replacing its earlier Declaration made on 12 September 1960. Article 17 of the General Act provides for the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ). Pakistan argued that by virtue of article 37 of its Statute the jurisdiction of the PCIJ passed on to the ICJ. The Republic of India instituted proceedings against the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations for the arrest and detention of an Indian National, Mr Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was tried and sentenced for death by a military court in Pakistan. v. India), 1973 ICJ Rep. 347 (Order of Dec. 15), Pakistan relied, in part, on Article 36(2) of the Statute as the basis for the Court’s jurisdiction. In July 1998 in Rome, 120 Member States of the United Nations adopted a treaty to establish -for the first time in the history of the world – a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC). The International Court of Justice has jurisdiction in two types of cases: contentious cases between states in which the court produces binding rulings between states that agree, or have previously agreed, to submit to the ruling of the court; and advisory opinions, which provide reasoned, but non-binding, rulings on properly submitted questions of international law, usually at the request of the United Nations … Optional clause declarations Thirdly, Article 36(2) allows states to make declarations accepting the Court's jurisdiction as compulsory ("optional clause declarations"). Not all countries accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, ICJ. Contentious Jurisdiction 2. Ad hoc Jurisdiction 3. The consent of both the parties is required to initiate a proceeding. Abstract. The Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ: Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico and New Zealand. The central issue, i.e. Currently, only 74 of 193 member states of the U.N. have accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ. Countries should apply and only then appear before the ICJ. While the United States is no longer subject to the ICJ’s broad compulsory jurisdiction, individual treaties may contain clauses that give the ICJ jurisdiction on a treaty-by-treaty basis. 1.4. party's deposit or ratification of acceptance of compulsory jurisdiction occurred "less than twelve months prior to the filing of the application bringing the dispute before the Court." The International Court of Justice (ICJ) -along with the United Nations- has just commemorated its 75 th anniversary. The judgment of the ICJ is binding and (technically) cannot be appealed (arts. ICJ, in accordance with international law, settles disputes of legal nature that are submitted to it by states. The Court's jurisdiction is based on the consent of the parties. The “compulsory jurisdiction” of the International Court of Justice is not truly compulsory. The UN Secretary-General was informed by the Soviet Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eduard Shevardnadze, by a letter dated February 28, 1989.9 The Soviet recognition of the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ, while limited to only six The Court has compulsory or obligatory jurisdiction where the parties concerned are bound by a treaty or convention under which they agreed to refer the matter to a tribunal to have been instituted by the League of Nations or to the Permanent Court of International Justice and by virtue of Article 37 of the Statute, such matters are automatically referred to the International Court of Justice. 1.3. The judgment is final, binding on the parties to th… Seventy-three UN Member States have accepted the ICJ’s compulsory jurisdiction, meaning that any international legal dispute involving those States may be submitted to the Court, provided that all the States party to the dispute before the ICJ have accepted its compulsory jurisdiction. 1.2. This is complementary to jurisdiction under Art 36 (1), and a State may rely on it in the alternative: see e.g. Table 1 provides the details. This consent may be expressed by means of uni - lateral declarations (also referred to as ’optional Definition of compulsory jurisdiction 1 : a jurisdiction existing by force of law over a person 2 : a mandatory jurisdiction that a state has agreed to accept in certain prescribed matters It is headquartered at the Peace Palace, The Hague, Netherlands. States can accept the jurisdiction of the ICJ in different ways: They may at any time make a formal declaration that they recognize, with regard to all disputes and without reference to any dispute in particular, the obligatory jurisdiction of the Court (Art. The first permanent institution established for the purpose of (5) disputes with regard to which any other party to a dispute has accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice exclusively for or in relation to the purposes of such dispute; or where the acceptance of the Court’s compulsory jurisdiction on behalf of a party to the dispute was deposited or ratified less than 12 months prior to the filing of the application bringing the … 36.2 of ICJ Statute). Voluntary Jurisdiction 2. The jurisdiction of the Court comprises all cases which the parties refer to it and all matters specially provided for in the Charter of the United Nations or in treaties and conventions in force. The Government of India claims that it came to know about the death sentence from a Press release and after diplomatic channels failed, it approache… Apropos of the ICJ’s (illusory) compulsory jurisdiction. the ICJ compulsory jurisdiction based on the optional clause, is dealt with in Chapter III. 1987) [herein-after ICJ AT A CROSSROADS]. Such cases are brought before the Court by means of written applications. 1 See Gross, Compulsory Jurisdiction under the Optional Clause: History and Practice, in THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE AT A CROSSROADS 19 (L. Damrosch ed. It was set up in June 1945 under the Charter of the United Nations and began its activities in April 1946. States have the option to accept or not to accept the Court's jurisdiction and can do … Some countries recognise the jurisdiction of the ICJ as compulsory by filing a declaration. The compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice: a myth? Contentious cases 1.1. The International Court of Justice possesses two kinds of jurisdiction. 855 The problem needs to be evaluated in light of the Court’s own position that its jurisdiction depends on the will of the parties involved (Brownlie, 2008). In the exercise of its jurisdiction in contentious cases, the International Court of Justice settles disputes of a legal nature that are submitted to it …