Describe the composition of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Discuss its voluntary jurisdiction. (2022, 15 Marks)
The International Court of Justice, sitting at The Hague since April 1946, is the UN’s principal judicial organ. Unlike a domestic court, it decides a dispute only when the states involved have consented, so its composition is designed to win their trust and its jurisdiction to respect their sovereignty.
Composition
- Fifteen judges of different nationalities, elected for nine years; five seats are renewed every three years.
- Double election: the General Assembly and the Security Council vote separately, and an absolute majority in both is needed. Article 10(2) excludes the veto, so the United Kingdom lost its seat to India’s Dalveer Bhandari in 2017, and Russia lost in 2023.
- Nomination by national groups in the Permanent Court of Arbitration; judges must be qualified for the highest judicial office or be recognised international lawyers.
- Article 9 requires the bench to represent the main forms of civilisation and principal legal systems, and seats informally follow regional groups.
- Judges ad hoc sit for a party without a national on the bench; a President (now Iwasawa Yuji) and Vice-President serve three-year terms, and the Registry administers.
Voluntary jurisdiction: the principle
Only states may be parties (Article 34), and none can be brought before the Court without its consent; once given, the judgment binds (Article 94). Consent takes four forms:
| Mode | When given | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Special agreement (compromis) | After the dispute | Gulf of Maine (1984) |
| Forum prorogatum | After the application is filed | Corfu Channel (1948) |
| Compromissory clause (Art. 36(1)) | In advance, in a treaty | Genocide Convention in The Gambia v. Myanmar; consular protocol in Jadhav (2019) |
| Optional clause (Art. 36(2)) | In advance, by unilateral declaration | Nicaragua v. United States (1984–86) |
The optional clause: voluntary acceptance of compulsion
- A declaration accepts jurisdiction as compulsory ipso facto towards any state accepting the same obligation; reciprocity confines it to the overlap of two declarations.
- Only 75 states have declarations in force, and the United Kingdom is the sole permanent member among them. France withdrew in 1974 after Nuclear Tests, the United States in 1985 during Nicaragua, and China in 1972 disowned the earlier declaration made in its name.
- Reservations hollow it out. The US Connally reservation was self-judging, which Hersch Lauterpacht held invalid. India’s 2019 declaration, replacing that of 1974, excludes Commonwealth states, hostilities and boundary disputes; the 1974 Commonwealth exclusion defeated Pakistan in the Aerial Incident case (2000).
- Declarations can be withdrawn at will, so consent vanishes when a case becomes inconvenient.
- R. P. Anand (Compulsory Jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, 1961) traced new states’ reluctance to a law made without them, a distrust South West Africa (1966) deepened; he later urged acceptance for routine disputes to build a habit of law.
Conclusion
Voluntary jurisdiction is the Court’s weakness and its strength: it keeps the great powers beyond reach, yet consent freely given produces near-complete compliance, as boundary judgments show. The ICJ is less a world court than a standing forum for states that choose law; its reach grows only as fast as that choice.