What is the International Court of Justice and why does it matter?

What is the ICJ for, and how does it work?

The

, which is situated in the Peace Palace in The Hague, a city in The Netherlands, was established in 1945 as a way of settling disputes between countries. The Court also provides advisory opinions on legal questions that have been referred to it by other authorized UN organs.

Widely known as the ‘World Court’, the ICJ is one of the six “principal organs” of the United Nations, on the…