World Court
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Revision as of 05:34, 13 June 2010
The World Court (officially, the International Court of Justice) is a United Nations agency which still operates in 2100 A.D. Indeed, it may be a more powerful institution than it was before the partial collapse of the U.N.
The World Court meets in The Hague, in the Netherlands. It has 15 judges, who (since the 2044 reforms to the U.N. Charter) are elected by the General Assembly acting alone. Many nations who have stopped participation in other U.N. activities continue to support the court; major examples include China and the United States.
The primary function of the court is to render judgments regarding international disputes. Any nations involved in a dispute may bring it before the court, and in fact many nations have made blanket agreements to subject all disputes of a certain kind to the court’s judgment. The court cannot force any nation to submit to its judgment. Rulings are made on the basis of existing international law, although (as with all courts) the World Court sometimes makes new law when there is no useful precedent. The court also issues advisory opinions when consulted by other U.N. or international institutions.
The World Court has had little success in preventing warfare or other violent conflicts – by the time a dispute reaches violence, the parties are usually unwilling to submit to the court’s arbitration. Still, it has often been able to resolve disputes involving boundaries, international trade, treaties, and so on. If anything, the world’s nations have brought such disputes to the court more often in recent decades. With other global institutions in a state of decline, the court has built a reputation as a fair and impartial arbitrator.
