International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice [French: La Cour internationale de justice (CIJ)], is an international organization. It is the main judicial organ or branch of the United Nations. In short, International Court of Justice is ICJ; sometimes people call it the World Court. In French language, it is Cour internationale de justice. Established ICJ in 1945, ICJ has its headquarters at The Hague, Netherlands. The ICJ began its working from 1946. It replaced an earlier similar court named Permanent Court of International Justice. The International Court of Justice is different from the International Criminal Court. The ICJ uses two languages, the English language and the French language.

The International Court of Justice has two major functions. Firstly, it settles disputes, which the member countries may bring before it. Secondly, it may give its opinions on legal matters. Since 1980s, many developing countries have been using the services of the ICJ. But, in 1986, the United States of America did not accept the court’s views on all matters, but rather selectively, on a case-to-case basis. Since the year 2000 the docket went down from 23 to 12 cases. In the meantime the staff tripled.