Introduction

Abstract

The International Court of Justice held its first sitting on 18 April 1946 and heard its first two cases in 1948: it heard preliminary objections in The Corfu Channel Case from late February to early March, and it held hearings in the advisory opinion on Conditions of Admission of a State to Membership in the United Nations (Article 4 of the Charter) in late April. Those first two cases were emblematic of the kinds of disputes that the Court would eventually hear and resolve as part of its ordinary caseload: they both dealt with practical issues, with significant political implications, and were an opportunity for the Court to provide guidance to the broader international community on disputed issues of international law. They provided the Court with scope to fulfil its mandate as the principal judicial organ of the United Nations; to function as a prominent interpreter of international law, as it is used and applied in practice. As international law has become more present in global policy-making and in academic and journalistic commentary, the International Court has come to occupy an essential and increasingly visible role in international relations, and has exercised jurisdiction over a significant number of international disputes addressing the same matters as are being wrestled with in the halls of the United Nations, and in ministries of foreign affairs across the world, and are being discussed as leading stories in international newspapers.