International Dispute Settlement

This database has four parts: 1) International Yearbooks and Periodicals; 2) US Law Digests; 3) International Tribunals/Judicial decisions; 4) Other Significant Works Related to Foreign and International Law. The International/Judicial decisions include a couple of series of arbitral awards.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). The Court’s role is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies. The Court is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of office of nine years by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council. It is assisted by a Registry, its administrative organ. Its official languages are English and French.

This page includes links to the Charter of the United Nations, the Statute of the Court, Rules of Court, Practice Directions, and Other Texts.

In contentious proceedings, when a dispute is brought before the Court by a unilateral application filed by one State against another State, the names of the parties in the official title of the case are separated by the abbreviation v. for the Latin versus (e.g., Cameroon v. Nigeria). When a dispute is submitted to the Court on the basis of a special agreement between two States, the names of the parties are separated by an oblique stroke (e.g., Indonesia/Malaysia).

Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea may use any of four options to resolve disputes: ITLOS, the ICJ, arbitration according to Annex VII to UNCLOS, or “a special arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with Annex VIII to the Convention.” ITLOS was established in 1996 under Part XV of the Convention. The URL listed above will get you to all the sections of the website.

The basic texts on the ITLOS site include statutes, rules, agreements, guidelines, resolutions, and other documents.

The ITLOS publications include Basic Texts; Reports of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders; Pleadings, Minutes of Public Sittings and Documents; and Yearbooks.

Includes documents associated with each case including institution of proceedings, statement received after the expiry of the time limit, request for provisional measures, written proceedings, oral proceedings, further information submitted by the International Seabed Authority, order, judgment, press releases, & photographs.

Deals with jurisdiction and access to the Tribunal.