THE HAGUE, 31 October 2001. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), principal judicial organ of the United Nations, has adopted with immediate effect Practice Directions for use by the States appearing before it.

Those Practice Directions involve no alteration to the Rules of Court, but are additional thereto. They are the result of the Court's ongoing review of its working methods ¾ a step justified by the congested state of its List and the budgetary constraints it continues to face.

Taking into account the foregoing, the Court has reissued and amended the "Note containing recommendations to the parties to new cases", to which reference was made in Press Release No. 98/14 of 6 April 1998. It is now entitled "Note containing important information for parties to new cases". Copies of that Note have been addressed to all States parties to the Statute of the Court (the 189 Member States of the United Nations and Switzerland).

In its Practice Directions, the Court strongly urges parties to append to their written pleadings only strictly selected documents and to provide it with any available translation (even a partial one only) of those pleadings into the other official language of the Court. It insists on the succinct character that oral arguments must retain. It wishes to discourage the practice of simultaneous filing of pleadings in cases brought by Special Agreement (that is, by two States jointly). It finally states that, with the aim of expediting the consideration of preliminary objections on grounds of lack of jurisdiction or inadmissibility raised by one party, the time-limit for the presentation by the other party of its written observations shall generally not exceed four months.

The Practice Directions will be published on the Court's website as well as in the Court's Yearbook. Any amendments to them will be published on the website.



___________



The full text of the "Note containing important information for parties to new cases" is annexed to this press release.

___________





Website of the Court: www.icj-cij.org



Information Department:

Mr. Arthur Witteveen, First Secretary of the Court (tel.: +31 70 302 23 36)

Mrs. Laurence Blairon, Information Officer (tel.: +31 70 302 23 37)

E-mail address: information@icj-cij.org



---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----

Annex to Press Communiqué No. 2001/32



Note containing important information for parties to new cases

1. The International Court of Justice recently carried out a re-examination of its working methods and took various decisions in this respect, bearing in mind both the congested state of the List and the budgetary constraints it has to face.

2. Some of these decisions concern the working methods of the Court itself. In outline, these measures, directed towards accelerating the Court's work, were brought to the attention of the United Nations General Assembly by the President of the Court at the Assembly's Fifty-second Session on 27 October 1997 (A/52/PV.36, pp. 1-5). The Court took a further series of decisions, also directed towards accelerating its work, in regard to various administrative matters.

3. The parties are informed that the Court has adopted the following Practice Directions which it wishes the parties to follow in proceedings before the Court:



Practice Direction I

The Court wishes to discourage the practice of simultaneous deposit of pleadings in cases brought by Special Agreement.

The Court would expect future special agreements to contain provisions as to the number and order of pleadings, in accordance with Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Rules of Court. Such provisions shall be without prejudice to any issue in the case, including the issue of burden of proof.

If the Special Agreement contains no provisions on the number and order of pleadings, the Court will expect the parties to reach agreement to that effect, in accordance with Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Rules of Court.



Practice Direction II

Each of the parties is, in drawing up its written pleadings, to bear in mind the fact that these pleadings are intended not only to reply to the submissions and arguments of the other party, but also, and above all, to present clearly the submissions and arguments of the party which is filing the proceedings.

In the light of this, at the conclusion of the written pleadings of each party, there is to appear a short summary of its reasoning.



Practice Direction III

The Court has noticed an excessive tendency towards the proliferation and protraction of annexes to written pleadings. It strongly urges parties to append to their pleadings only strictly selected documents.



Practice Direction IV

Where one of the parties has a full or partial translation of its own pleadings or of those of the other party in the other official language of the Court, these translations should as a matter of course be passed to the Registry of the Court. The same applies to the annexes.

These translations will be examined by the Registry and communicated to the other party. The latter will also be informed of the manner in which they were prepared.



Practice Direction V

With the aim of accelerating proceedings on preliminary objections made by one party under Article 79, paragraph 1, of the Rules of Court, the time-limit for the presentation by the other party of a written statement of its observations and submissions under Article 79, paragraph 5, shall generally not exceed four months.



Practice Direction VI

Article 60, paragraph 1, of the Rules provides:

"The oral statements made on behalf of each party shall be as succinct as possible within the limits of what is requisite for the adequate presentation of that party's contentions at the hearing. Accordingly, they shall be directed to the issues that still divide the parties, and shall not go over the whole ground covered by the pleadings, or merely repeat the facts and arguments these contain."

The Court requires full compliance with these provisions and observation of the requisite degree of brevity. Where objections of lack of jurisdiction or of inadmissibility are being considered, oral proceedings are to be limited to statements on the objections.