International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), often called the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. Established by the UN Charter in June 1945, it began work in 1946 and sits in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, the only one of the six principal UN organs not based in New York. It succeeded the Permanent Court of International Justice, which had operated under the League of Nations from 1920. The Court has two functions. In contentious cases it settles legal disputes between states; in its advisory role it gives non-binding opinions on legal questions referred by UN bodies such as the General Assembly or Security Council. A bench of 15 judges, no two of whom may be nationals of the same country, is elected to nine-year terms jointly by the General Assembly and the Security Council, with a third of the seats renewed every three years. The Court's power is sharply limited by two features. First, only states, not individuals or companies, may be parties to contentious cases, and the Court's jurisdiction rests on state consent: a state must agree to be sued, whether through a special agreement, a treaty clause, or a standing declaration accepting compulsory jurisdiction. There is no automatic worldwide jurisdiction. Second, the ICJ has no police force or direct enforcement power. A losing state that ignores a ruling can be referred to the Security Council, but enforcement there is subject to the veto of the five permanent members, so compliance is often effectively voluntary. The ICJ should not be confused with the International Criminal Court (ICC), also in The Hague. The ICC prosecutes individuals for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity; the ICJ resolves disputes between states and cannot try people. They are entirely separate institutions. Notable contentious cases include Corfu Channel (1949), the first the Court decided, and Nicaragua v. United States (1986), in which the Court found US support for Contra rebels and the mining of Nicaraguan harbours unlawful; the United States rejected the ruling and withdrew its acceptance of compulsory jurisdiction. Influential advisory opinions include the 2004 opinion holding Israel's separation barrier in occupied Palestinian territory contrary to international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention: Protecting Civilians Under Occupation which the Court held applies in the West Bank: Geography, Population, and Disputed Status, and a 2025 opinion on states' climate-change obligations, requested by 99 countries. As an arbiter between sovereign states, the ICJ differs from the Extraterritorial Legal Jurisdiction: When Countries Prosecute Citizens for Acts Abroad individual nations assert over conduct abroad.