History and Origins of the ICJ
From the Permanent Court of International Justice to the founding of the ICJ as the principal judicial organ of the UN.
The Permanent Court of International Justice
The idea of a standing international court to resolve disputes between states emerged long before the United Nations. The 1899 and 1907 Hague Peace Conferences created the Permanent Court of Arbitration, but it was an arbitral body, not a true court with permanent judges. After World War I, the League of Nations established the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) in 1920. Based in The Hague, the PCIJ heard 29 contentious cases and issued 27 advisory opinions before World War II effectively ended its operations.
The PCIJ proved that international adjudication could work. Its jurisprudence laid foundations that the ICJ would build upon, including principles of treaty interpretation, state responsibility, and the law of the sea. But the PCIJ was weakened by the same forces that doomed the League: the absence of the United States, the rise of aggressive dictatorships, and the inability of the international order to enforce its own rules.