© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved
COURTS AND TRIBUNALS |
Notes on the International Court of Justice (Part 3): Rule-making at the Court—Integration, Uniformization, Keeping Existing Article Numbers and Giving Public Notice
Correspondence: * Changjiang Xuezhe Professor, Wuhan University Institute of International Law (email: sienho{at}chinesejil.org). The work for this paper forms part of Project No. 08&ZD055 of the China Social Sciences Foundation. I am grateful to Hugh Thirlway and Shabtai Rosenne for general discussions and their criticisms, to which I have attempted to respond. The responsibility for the essays is mine alone in my personal capacity. This paper was completed on 28 October 2009.
This paper comments on, and makes proposals for improving, the rule-making at the International Court of Justice (ICJ or Court), with a view to making it easier for States, particularly those that are represented by lawyers who are not ICJ specialists, to litigate before the Court. The paper argues that (1) all "rules", including provisions of the Rules of Court, Practice Directions and notes for parties should be centralized and integrated and the "rules" be called "rules", and (2) new rules be promulgated in a way that would keep the old article numbers as much as possible and only after some notice is given to the public, with a view to receiving comments.