The International Court of Justice,also called the World Court,is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordance with international law and gives advisory opinions on international legal issues. The ICJ is the only international court that adjudicates general disputes between countries,with its rulings and opinions serving as primary sources of international law.
Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons[1996] ICJ 3 is a landmark international law case,where the International Court of Justice gave an advisory opinion stating that while the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to international humanitarian law,it cannot be concluded whether or not such a threat or use of nuclear weapons would be lawful in extreme circumstances where the very survival of a state would be at stake. The Court held that there is no source of international law that explicitly authorises or prohibits the threat or use of nuclear weapons but such threat or use must be in conformity with the UN Charter and principles of international humanitarian law. The Court also concluded that there was a general obligation to pursue nuclear disarmament.
Hisashi Owada is a Japanese former jurist,diplomat and law professor. He served as a judge on the International Court of Justice from 2003 until June 7,2018,and was President of the Court from 2009 to 2012. He is the father of Empress Masako and the father-in-law of the incumbent Emperor of Japan,Naruhito.
Shi Jiuyong was a Chinese judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Shi was elected to the ICJ on 6 February 1994,and became President nine years later on 6 February 2003. In 2010,he announced his resignation from the Court effective on 28 May 2010.
Peter Tomka is a Slovak judge of the International Court of Justice. Prior to his election to the ICJ in 2003,Tomka was a Slovak diplomat.
Rosalyn C. Higgins,Baroness Higgins,is a British former president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). She was the first female judge elected to the ICJ,and was elected to a three-year term as its president in 2006.
Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf is a Somali lawyer and judge serving on the International Court of Justice since 2009. He served as the court's president from 2018 to 2021.
Bernardo Sepúlveda Amor is a Mexican diplomat and jurist. He was Secretary of Foreign Affairs during the 1980s under President Miguel de la Madrid and is a former judge of the International Court of Justice.
Sir Kenneth James Keith is a New Zealand judge. He was elected to the International Court of Justice in November 2005,serving a nine-year term during the years 2006 through 2015.
Elizabeth Susan Wilmshurst,Distinguished Fellow of the International Law Programme at Chatham House,and Professor of International Law at University College London,is best known for her role as Deputy Legal Adviser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Political leaders of the US and UK who led the arguments which resulted in the invasion of Iraq have claimed that the war was legal. However,legal experts,including the chairman of the Iraq Inquiry,John Chilcot,who led an investigation with hearings from 24 November 2009 to 2 February 2011,concluded that the process of identifying the legal basis for the invasion of Iraq was unsatisfactory and that the actions of the US and the UK have undermined the authority of the United Nations.
The Statute of the International Court of Justice is an integral part of the United Nations Charter,as specified by Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter,which established the International Court of Justice.
Guy Serle Goodwin-Gill is a barrister and a professor of public international law at Oxford University and a Fellow of All Souls College,Oxford.
Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo was a request in 2008 for an advisory opinion referred to the International Court of Justice by the United Nations General Assembly regarding the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence. The territory of Kosovo is the subject of a dispute between Serbia and the Republic of Kosovo established by the declaration. This was the first case regarding a unilateral declaration of independence to be brought before the court.
Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade was a Brazilian jurist and international judge. He was appointed as judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from 6 February 2009. He was reelected to the Court in December 2017,and took office for his second term on 6 February 2018,serving until his death in 2022.
James Richard Crawford,AC,SC,FBA was an Australian academic and practitioner in the field of public international law. He was elected as Judge of the International Court of Justice for a full term of 9 years in November 2014 and took his seat on the court in February 2015. From 1990 to 1992 Crawford was Dean of the Sydney Law School where he was also the Challis Professor of International Law from 1986 to 1992. From 1992 to 2014,he was Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge and Fellow in Law at Jesus College,Cambridge. He was formerly Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law,also at Cambridge.
Sir Michael Charles Wood is a member of the International Law Commission. He was the principal Legal Adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 1999 and 2006. During 35 years as a lawyer in the FCO,he attended many international conferences,including the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. He now practices as a barrister from chambers at 20 Essex Street,in London.
Xue Hanqin is a Chinese jurist at the International Court of Justice. On 29 June 2010,she was elected to fill the vacancy created by Shi Jiuyong's resignation on 28 May 2010. She is one of three female judges serving on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and one of only four women elected as members of the Court to date. Xue is the fifth Chinese judge at the ICJ,and the third representing the People's Republic of China.
Joan E. Donoghue is an American lawyer,international legal scholar,former U.S. State Department official,and the current president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). She was first elected to the court in 2010,re-elected in 2014,and elected by the ICJ judges to be president of the ICJ in 2021. She is the third woman to be elected to the ICJ and the first American woman elected as president of the Court.
The 2017 International Court of Justice election took place from 9 to 20 November 2017 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. In the set of triennial elections,the General Assembly and the Security Council concurrently elect five judges to the Court for nine-year terms,in this case beginning on 6 February 2018. From the seven candidates,the five winners were Abdulqawi Yusuf (Somalia),Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade (Brazil),Nawaf Salam (Lebanon),Ronny Abraham (France) and Dalveer Bhandari (India).
