The Statute of the International Court of Justice: A Commentary

Abstract

This impressive tome is published as one in the series of Oxford Commentaries on International Law with Alston and Lowe as general editors. The first comprehensive commentary on the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ or Court), its advent on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the ICJ is timely. The Commentary has the modest aim “to assist the Court and all of the users in the challenging task of clarifying the procedural foundations of its work” (Preface, P.v). The size of the undertaking, however, reveals the ambition of the editors and other contributors to deal with the Statute thoroughly and masterfully. Part One, Introduction, of the book consists of two introductory essays. The book could not have found a better opening in the concise yet authoritative General Introduction by the late Jennings, sometime President of the ICJ during his tenure as a member of the Court. He dealts with certain general issues, such as the salient features of the Court, and with the activities of the Court since its inception in 1946. He also explores particular issues from his experience and observation, such as the “earthy notion” that the ICJ has come to be seen as a special and technical forum to settle “certain kinds and certain stages of disputes” (P. 36). His words of wisdom towards the end of the introduction, in respect of steps to be taken in the improvement of the judicial process before the ICJ for the benefit of the general public, were particularly resonant, that great judges of the past, “addressed themselves to intelligent people in general and to anyone who was listening; and most of their words, immensely learned and scholarly as these people certainly were, could nevertheless be understood by any inquiring mind” (P. 36). This perception applies, this reviewer strongly believes, equally to the academic legal writing in this field. Spiermann then provides a reflection upon the drafting history of the Statute for the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) and the work of the PCIJ between 1922 and 1940. The continuity from the PCIJ and the ICJ was ensured through the Statute of the PCIJ being amended in 1945 to become the basic law for the ICJ.

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