The International Court of Justice

Abstract

Signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945. An Inter-Allied Committee in London produced on 10 February 1944 a “Report on the Future of the Permanent Court of International Justice” (British Parliamentary Papers. 1944-Cmd. 6531). In Chapter VII of the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals an International Court of Justice was suggested, the Statute of which should be incorporated in the Charter of the new Organisation. After the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the sponsoring Governments set up a committee of jurists of the United Nations to draw up a Draft Statute. This Committee met at Washington in April 1945 and prepared a Draft which closely followed the Statute of the old Court. At San Francisco the new Court was established with a Statute which—except for a few points—concorded entirely with the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice. Various amendments and additions, concerning matters of detail only, were introduced in Articles 3, 10, 12, 13, 22, 26, 27, 30, 34, 36–39, 42, 57 and 65. Chapter V (Arts. 69 and 70) was new. Attempts to invest the Court with compulsory jurisdiction failed, as they had in 1920. Cf. I.C.J. Series D, no. 1, p. 37.