Brief Remarks on the Effect of Judgments on International Law

Strictly speaking and also commonly well-understood, the function of the International Court of Justice is to “decide such disputes as are submitted to it” and to give decisions that, according to Article 59 of its Statute, are binding only upon the parties to the dispute. On several occasions, the Court has recalled that its role must be strictly limited to this purpose and, in this respect, it has declined to exercise any law-making power. For example, in the Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, the Court said that: