10.4 The International Court of Justice

The UN's principal judicial organ (Charter Art. 92; the Statute's integral part); the PCIJ's successor. Composition: 15 judges, 9-year terms, elected by the General Assembly and Security Council voting separately; the equitable-geographical-distribution practice; the ad hoc judge — the party's own appointee when no national sits (Art. 31); the chambers (Arts. 26– 29); Jurisdiction (Article 36): (i) contentious — states only; consent's three sources: the special agreement, the compromissory clauses (treaties' ICJ clauses), and the optional clause — the Declaration under Art. 36(2) accepting compulsory jurisdiction ipso facto on condition of reciprocity (Nepal: no optional-clause declaration — the consent-reserving practice of most states; the reservations games — the Connally reservation's auto-interpretation); (ii) advisory jurisdiction (Art. 65) — the organs' and specialized agencies' requests; the opinions non-binding but authoritative; Functioning: written and oral phases; judgment by majority; Article 41 — provisional measures (their bindingness settled by LaGrand (2001)); Article 59 — no stare decisis (the judgment binds only the parties and that case — with the jurisprudence constante's practical authority); Article 94 — the Charter's compliance clause: the Security Council's recommendation-or-action power on non-compliance (the veto-crippled practice — the Nicaragua-era non-appearance and non-enforcement); The family: ITLOS (the law of the sea's court), the ICC's criminal distinctness — the ICJ as the states' court among the specialized centres; the era's landmarks: Nicaragua…