Basic documents

The International Court of Justice was established by the Charter of the United Nations, which provides that all Member States of the United Nations are ipso facto parties to the Court’s Statute. The Statute, together with the Rules of Court, organizes the composition and functioning of the Court. Since October 2001, the Court has also issued Practice Directions for use by States appearing before it.

• Charter of the United Nations

The Charter of the United Nations, which was signed in San Francisco on 26 June 1945, is the foundational treaty of the United Nations. It is also the constitutive text of the International Court of Justice, which was created by the Charter.

Provisions on the Court can be found in Article 7, paragraph 1, Article 36, paragraph 3, and Articles 92-96 (Chapter XIV) of the Charter.

• Statute of the Court

The Statute of the International Court of Justice is annexed to the Charter of the United Nations, of which it forms an integral part. The main purpose of the Statute is to organize the composition and functioning of the Court.

Like the Charter, the Statute can only be amended by a two-thirds majority vote in the General Assembly and ratification by two thirds of the States (Art. 69).

Should the ICJ wish its Statute to be amended, it must submit a proposal to that effect to the General Assembly by sending a written communication to the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Art. 70). Hitherto, however, the Statute of the Court has never been amended.

• Rules of Court

Article 30 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice provides that “[t]he Court shall frame rules for carrying out its functions”. These Rules are intended to supplement the general rules set out in the Statute and to make detailed provision for the steps to be taken to comply with them.

• Practice Directions

The Court adopted its first Practice Directions for use by States appearing before it in October 2001. Practice Directions supplement, rather than alter, the Rules of Court. They reflect the Court’s ongoing review of its working methods. Once adopted by the Court, amendments to the Practice Directions are posted on the Court’s website and published in the Court’s Yearbook, with a note of any temporal reservations relating to their applicability.

• Other Texts

In addition to the Statute and the Rules of Court, other legal documents have been adopted by the Court or the United Nations, or concluded by the Court with the host country, and govern certain aspects of the Court's activities

Collections and compilations of basic texts

• Río Santos, F. (trad. y prep.), Código de la Corte Internacional de Justicia, Edición 2023, La Coruña, Colex, 2023.

Case-law

The case-law of the International Court of Justice is published by the Registry, in several series, some of which are available in electronic version

• Reports of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders, The Hague, International Court of Justice, [1947- ...].

This series contains both the English and French versions of the Court’s decisions. Each decision is published as soon as possible after it has been given, in an unbound fascicle, which is sold separately. So that all the decisions in a given year can be assembled and bound, the page numbering is continuous for all the fascicles in that year.

Early each year an index is published of the previous year’s decisions, which may also be purchased separately. The collected decisions, with index, for each year may be obtained bound in one to three volumes.

• Pleadings, Oral Arguments, Documents, The Hague, International Court of Justice, [1947- ...].

Volumes in this series are published after the termination of each case and contain the documentation relating to the case in the original language, i.e. English or French. This comprises the document instituting proceedings, the written pleadings and (selected) annexes, the verbatim records of the oral proceedings, any documents submitted to the Court after the closure of the written proceedings, and selected correspondence.

All case-law of the Court can be found in electronic form on the ICJ website

• List of all cases
• Pending cases
• Contentious cases
• Contentious cases organized by State
• Contentious cases organized by incidental proceedings
• Advisory proceedings
• Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders

Collections and compilations of ICJ case-law

• Apostolidis, C., Les arrêts de la Cour internationale de Justice, Dijon, Ed. universitaires de Dijon, 2005.
• Bekker, P.H.F. (ed.), Commentaries on World Court Decisions (1987-1996), The Hague, Nijhoff, 1998.
• Bekker, P.H.F., World Court Decisions at the Turn of the Millennium (1997-2001), The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 2002.
• Cançado Trindade, A.A., International Law for Humankind: Towards a New Jus Gentium, Third Revised Edition, Boston, Brill Nijhoff, 2020.
• Dahlhofff, G. (ed.), International Court of Justice: Digest of Judgments and Advisory Opinions, Canon and Case Law 1946-2012, 2 Volumes, Leiden, Martinus Nijhoff, 2012.
• Eisemann, P.M. et P. Pazartzis (dir.), La jurisprudence de la Cour internationale de Justice, Paris, Pedone, 2008.
• Hambro, E., The Case Law of the International Court: A Repertoire of the Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders of the International Court of Justice including Dissenting and Separate Opinions = La jurisprudence de la Cour Internationale: un répertoire des arrêts, avis consultatifs et ordonnances de la Cour Internationale de Justice y inclus les opinions individuelles et dissidentes, 14 Volumes, Leyden, A.W. Sythoff, 1952-1976.
• Labrecque, G., Le recours à la force contre les États: jurisprudence récente de la Cour internationale de Justice, Montréal, Québec, Éditions Yvon Blais, 2019.
• Marek, K. (ed.), A Digest of the Decisions of the International Court, 3 Volumes, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1978.
• Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, World Court Digest, 4 Volumes, Berlin, Springer, 1993-2009.
• Patel, B.N. (ed.), The World Court Reference Guide and Case-Law Digest: Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders of the International Court of Justice (2001-2010) and Case-Law Digest (1992-2010), 2nd Edition, Leiden, Brill Nijhoff, 2014.
• Qureshi, K., Advisory Opinions of the International Court of Justice, London, Wildy, Simmonds & Hill Publishing, 2018.
• Rosenne, S. (ed.), Documents on the International Court of Justice, Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff, 1991.
• Uchkunova, I., World Court Practice Guide: Summaries and Index of PCIJ and ICJ Cases, Alphen a/d Rijn, Wolters Kluwer, 2016.
• Ziccardi Capaldo, G., Repertory of Decisions of the International Court of Justice (1947-1992), 2 Volumes, Dordrecht; Boston; London, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1995.

UN Declarations and Resolutions

The resolutions and decisions of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council may provide valuable information on the International Court of Justice and its activities. Although they cannot themselves constitute international law or serve as conclusive evidence of a rule of customary law, such resolutions do have value in providing evidence of existing or emerging law. This point of view has been acknowledged by the International Law Commission.

As every Member State has been recognized and has a vote in the UN General Assembly, finding General Assembly resolutions that passed unanimously or near-unanimously may serve as an excellent starting point in the legal research process. Pay attention to the language of the resolution. Those with firm obligations versus those that are merely aspirational or advisory in nature are more likely to be considered valuable as evidence of customary international law.

→ Official Document System Search. ODS is the UN's Official Document System. You can search for UN declarations, resolutions and other documents by keywords, then narrow your search.

→ Start Your Research: (7) Resolutions and Decisions of International Organizations.

Reference works

• International Court of Justice. The International Court of Justice : 75 Years in the Service of Peace and Justice. International Court of Justice, 2021.
• Handbook, The Hague, International Court of Justice, 2019.

In 2019, the Court published the latest edition of the Handbook. Its purpose is to provide the general public with a simple, comprehensible overview of the history, composition, jurisdiction, procedure and decisions of the International Court of Justice.

• Espósito, C.D. and K. Parlett (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to the International Court of Justice, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2023.
• Kolb, R., The International Court of Justice, Oxford, Hart, 2013.
• Kolb, R. The Elgar Companion to the International Court of Justice, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2014.
• Lauterpacht, H., The Development of International Law by the International Court, Reprinted Edition, Cambridge, Grotius Publications Limited, 1982.
• Fitzmaurice, G., The Law and Procedure of the International Court of Justice, 2 Volumes, Cambridge, Grotius, 1986.
• Hernández, G.I., The International Court of Justice and the Judicial Function, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014.
• Kolb, R., The International Court of Justice, Oxford, Hart, 2013.
• Kolb, R. The Elgar Companion to the International Court of Justice, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2014.
• Lauterpacht, H., The Development of International Law by the International Court, Reprinted Edition, Cambridge, Grotius Publications Limited, 1982.
• Quintana, J.J., Litigation at the International Court of Justice: Practice and Procedure, Leiden, Brill Nijhoff, 2015.
• Rosenne, S. (et al.) (ed.), Rosenne's the World Court: What it is and How it Works, Sixth Edition, Leiden, Nijhoff, 2003. 
• Shaw, M.N., Rosenne's Law and Practice of the International Court, 1920-2015, 4 Volumes, Fifth Edition, Leiden, Brill Nijhoff, 2016.
• Thirlway, H.W.A., The Law and Procedure of the International Court of Justice: Fifty Years of Jurisprudence, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013.
• Thirlway, H.W.A., The International Court of Justice, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016.
• Zimmermann, A. (et al.) (eds.), The Statute of the International Court of Justice: A Commentary, Third Edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2019.

Recent books and peer-reviewed articles

• Baber, G., The British Judges of the International Court of Justice: An Explication?: Overview, McNair and Lauterpacht,  New York, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2021.
• Bulhões Neiva, M.A., A Corte Internacional de Justiça e os danos ambientais transfronteiriços, Curitiba, PR, Appris Editora, 1a. edição, 2020.
• Eyffinger, A., The World Court: Volume I: the Constitution (1870-1920), The Hague, Eleven, 2023.
• Fouchard, F., The Standard of Review before the International Court of Justice between Principle and Pragmatism, London, Hart Publishing, 2024.
• Hernández Páez, J.P., La Corte Internacional de Justicia: jurisprudencia y práctica, Primera Edición, Guatemala, C.A., Third Moon Publishing, 2023.
• Kuc, O., The International Court of Justice and Municipal Courts: An Inter-Judicial Dialogue, London; New York, 2022.
• Ri Júnior, A. Dal e L.C. Lima (org.), A jurisprudência da Corte Internacional de Justiça: história e influência no Direito Internacional, Belo Horizonte, Editora Del Rey, 2020.
• Schabas, W.A. (ed.), The International Court of Justice, 2 Volumes, Cheltenham; Northampton, Edward Elgar Publishing 2020.
• Sender, Omri. International Law-Making by the International Court of Justice and International Law Commission : Partnership for Purpose in a Decentralized Legal Order. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
• Thouvenin, J.-M. and J.J. Hébert (eds.), La Cour Internationale de Justice à 75 Ans, Paris, Editions Pedone, 2023.

For all peer-reviewed articles in the PPL Catalogue, click here.

Periodicals, serial publications

• Acts and Documents, The Hague, International Court of Justice

No. 7 is the latest issue in this series. It contains the Charter of the United Nations, the Statute and Rules of Court along with Practice Directions and other basic texts.

• Annuaire-Yearbook, The Hague, International Court of Justice, [1947-1948- ...].

In the second half of each year a Yearbook is published describing the work of the Court from 1 August of the preceding year to 31July of the current year. This publication used to be issued in separate English (Yearbook) and French (Annuaire) versions, but since No.68 it has been published as a bilingual version.

Bibliographies

• Bibliography of the International Court of Justice, The Hague, International Court of Justice, [1947- ...].

Each year the Registry of the Court issues a bibliography listing the works and documents referring to the Court that have come to its attention during the previous year. As of No. 55, the Bibliography has been subdivided according to a new system and the layout has been revised for greater facility of use. A list of headings appears as a table of contents at the beginning of each volume: A. The Court and the international judicial system; B. Organization of the Court; Jurisdiction of the Court; Procedure before the Court; E. Cases brought before the Court; F. Proposals for reference of matters to the Court; G. Writings containing references to the Court; Alphabetical index of authors' names; Alphabetical list of subjects.

From 1946 to 2003, the Bibliography was prepared as an official publication on an annual basis (Nos. 1-57), with the annual issues periodically collected in cumulative volumes. For practical reasons, the Registry now maintains the official record of bibliographical references in a database. The Bibliography is a printed version of records found in that database, following the style of the last number in the official series and prepared in order to facilitate greater access to works referencing the Court. The Bibliography, is prepared by the Court’s private library (a division of the Registry).

• Douma, J. (prep.), Bibliography on the International Court including the Permanent Court, 1918-1964, being Volume IV-C of Hambro, E., The Case Law of the International Court: a Repertoire of the Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders of the International Court of Justice, Leyden, A.W. Sythoff, 1966.

Dictionaries

• Quintana, J.J., Diccionario jurídico de la Corte Internacional de Justicia, Bogotá, Tirant lo Blanch, 2021.