ICJ: Consent to Contentious Jurisdiction

Must be given.

The Court is competent to entertain a dispute only if the States concerned have accepted its jurisdiction in one or more of the following ways:

• by the conclusion of a special agreement to submit the dispute to the Court (1);
• by virtue of a jurisdictional clause (2), i.e., typically when they are parties to a treaty containing a provision whereby, in the event of a disagreement over its interpretation or application, one of them may refer the dispute to the Court;
• through the reciprocal effect of declarations made under Article 36, paragraph 2 of the Statute whereby each has accepted the jurisdiction of the Court as compulsory in the event of a dispute with another State that has made a similar declaration (3). On January 1, 1999, declarations of 59 States were in force, a number of them having made subject to the exclusion of certain categories of dispute. These declarations are published in the United Nations Treaty Series and in the ICJ Yearbook (4).
  

Notes

1 Statute of the Court, art. 36.1. The object of the dispute and the names of the parties must be indicated to the Registrar. Statute of the Court, art. 40.1; Rules of the Court, art. 39.

2 Under art. 36.1 of the Statute of the Court and art. 38 of the Rules of the Court, the plaintiff must indicate the provision of the international agreement which he claims establishes the Court's jurisdiction. "Whenever the treaty or convention in force provides for reference of a matter to a tribunal to have been instituted by the League of Nations, or to the Permanent Court of International Justice, the matter shall, as between the parties to the present statute, be referred to the International Court of Justice." Statute of the Court, art. 37.

3 Statute of the Court, art. 36.2-5.

4 In July 1996, there were only 59 declarations made.