The Future of International Courts and Tribunals in The Hague

The International Court of Justice (World Court or ICJ) is a judicial branch of

the UN. It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and
began work in April 1946. The Court is composed of 15 judges, who are elected f
or terms of office of nine years by the UN General Assembly and the Security Cou
ncil. It settles legal disputes submitted by states and provides advisory opinio
ns on legal questions submitted by duly authorized international branches, agenc
ies, and the UN General Assembly. Based on one of the case, Nicaragua versus USA
(1986), the ICJ ruled in favor of Nicaragua against the US and awarded reparati
ons to Nicaragua. The ICJ held that the U.S. had violated international law by s
upporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Nicaraguan government and b
y mining Nicaragua's harbors. The Court found in its verdict that the US was "in
breach of its obligations under customary international law not to use force ag
ainst another State", "not to intervene in its affairs", "not to violate its sov
ereignty", "not to interrupt peaceful maritime commerce", and "in breach of its
obligations under Article XIX of the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigati
on between the Parties signed at Managua on 21 January 1956." The Court had 16 f
inal decisions upon which it voted. The very long judgment first listed 291 poin
ts, among them that the United States had been involved in the "unlawful use of
force." The ICJ roles especially when it comes to the use of force and in some c
ase, like the Nicaragua v US, used the juridiction. However, the ICJ has no comp
ulsory jurisdiction. Which means, it can only adjudicate some disputes that stat
es have referred. As for the futur, the ICJ should be able to use jurisdiction o
n every disputes or matters. So many cases are still awaiting for decision, most
ly the main solution to solve that awaiting will be that their will more than ju
ste on ICJ at The Hague, which will be two or three set of 15 judges. To the que
stion ''Given the rise of terrorism and terrorist groups, should we establish an
International Terrorism tribunal? My answer is yes. Other then the peace who sh
ould be consider the main resolution to human value and on which the ICJ should
mainly focus in the futur, I think that the question of the terrorism is also re
ally important, whithout saying an emergency for the human protection. Internati
onal terrorism has become one of the man treats to the human security in the 21s
t century (November 13, 2015 in France). With the instauration of a ITT (Interna
tional Terrorism tribunal), the International law will be mostly prepared to add
ress the conflicts between the terrorist and the states. The ITT will prosecute
the criminal acts of the terrorist organization. In the international law, all t
he attemps to adopt acomprehensive convention on combatting international terror
ism had been unsuccessful. The UN Security Council Resolutions do indicate a tre
nd of the recognition of terrorism as a crime under international customory law
(Antonio Cassese, Feb 16th 2011). It is important to step forwards and recongniz
e terrorism as crime to the human society and under the customary rule of intern
ational law. Article 9 : ..at the trial of any individual member of any group or
organization, the Tribunal may declare that the group or orgagniztion of which
the individual was a member of was a criminal organization. Article 10 : ...in c
ases where a group or organization is declared criminal by the Tribunal, the com
petent national authority of any signatory shall have the right to bring the ind
ividual to trial before either a national, military, or occupational court. In a
ny such case, if the group or organization is put in trial and proven guilty, th
e Tribunal will declare that the Gestapo, SD, SS and political leadership of the
NSDAP is criminal. The UN Security Council is the main of the UN and has the re
sponsability for the maintenance of international peace and security. Its compet
ence is to determine violations of peace, threat to peace, acts of aggression or
acts taken by states in violation of international law but don't have the compe
tence to assess states act in compliance with the international law. As a conclu
sion, the legal assessment of acts committed by international terrorist organiza
tions cannot be performes directly by the UN Security Council. International cri
minal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and a number of internatio
nalized tribunals have been established. The International Tribunal for the Pros
ecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations ofInternational Humanitari

an Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 (ICTY) was
established by Resolution 827 of the United Nations Security Council on May 25t
h 1993. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was established on
November 8th 1994 by the United Nations Security Council by Resolution 955 (199
4) in order to hold people responsible for the Rwandan Genocide and other seriou
s violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan citizens in nearby st
ates, between January 1st 1994 and December 31st 1994. As a conclusion, it would
be reasonable to open an International Tribunal for Terrorist. The Tribunal wil
l be able to establish a resolution along with the UN Security Council pretty mu
ch similar to the existing international criminal tribunals for the former Yugos
lavia and Rwanda. The International Tribunal for Terrorist will be enough compet
ent for issues and decisions on recognizing organizations as international terror
ist organizations , along with cooperating with states and the UN Security Council
.
Reference: http://research.un.org/en/docs/law/courts https://en.wikipedia.org/wi
ki/Nicaragua_v._United_States http://www.icj-cij.org/court/index.php?p1=1 https:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0-nk-1LOvU (Russia calls to establish tribunal for te
rrorists)