Statute of the ICJ

The Statute of the International Court of Justice is the constitutive instrument of the ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It is annexed to, and forms an integral part of, the UN Charter (Article 92 of the Charter), meaning every UN member state is automatically a party to the Statute. Non-UN states may also become parties on conditions set by the General Assembly on Security Council recommendation. The Statute is largely modeled on the 1920 Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice, its League of Nations predecessor.

The Statute contains 70 articles organized into five chapters covering the organization of the Court, its competence, procedure, advisory opinions, and amendment. Key provisions include:

• Article 2–33: Composition. The Court consists of 15 judges of different nationalities elected for nine-year terms by the General Assembly and Security Council voting separately.
• Article 34: Only states may be parties in contentious cases before the Court.
• Article 36: Defines the Court's jurisdiction, including the optional clause under Article 36(2) by which states may declare they recognize the Court's compulsory jurisdiction.
• Article 38: The most-cited provision in international law, listing the sources the Court applies: international conventions, international custom, general principles of law, and (as subsidiary means) judicial decisions and the teachings of publicists.
• Article 41: Authorizes provisional measures.
• Article 59: Decisions bind only the parties and only in respect of that case (no formal stare decisis).
• Article 65: Allows the Court to give advisory opinions at the request of authorized UN organs.

Amendments follow the same procedure as Charter amendments (Article 69), requiring ratification by two-thirds of UN members including all permanent Security Council members. The Statute has never been formally amended.