International Court of Justice

• introductory articles such as ‘The’ and the words ‘Case’ or ‘Case Concerning’ should be omitted;
• full stops should not be used in abbreviations
• capitalisation should adhere to the General Rules concerning capitalisation.

• Do not abbreviate the names of countries in the case name (eg use ‘United Kingdom’ and ‘United States’ as appears on the title page of the case report). However, you may abbreviate parties' names when including them in parentheses after the case name.

Certain Calcium Deposits in the United Kingdom (UK v France) [2005] ICJ Rep 56.

• The names of the parties should be italicised and included within parentheses, following the case name. The names may be abbreviated here (eg US and UK).

• Where there is more than one party on one side, only put the name of the first party (for example, New Zealand v France, NOT New Zealand and Greenpeace v France).

• Where applicable, the phase of the action should be italicised and included within parentheses after the parties’ names. Phases include:

• Jurisdiction
• Judgment
• Merits
• Oral/Written Pleadings of <State>
• Orders
• Preliminary Objections

For Oral Pleadings, include full date after phase in parentheses:

Armed Activities (Oral Pleadings of Democratic Republic of Congo — Translation) (12 April 2005) [2005] ICJ [35] <http://www.icj-cij.org> at 18 May 2007.

• The year should be included before the name of the publication in square brackets.
• Where there is more than one volume produced in the year, the volume number should also be included, immediately after the year.
• The publication of the ICJ is abbreviated to ‘ICJ Rep’. The court also publishes International Court Pleadings, abbreviated to ‘ICJ Pleadings’.

• The first page of the ICJ case should appear after the publication name.

• Page numbers are preferred for pinpoint references.
• Paragraph numbers should only be used where page numbers are not available, such as where the case is only available online.
• The correct page number is the number at the top of the page, being the higher number, that does not start again.

• Recent cases may not yet be available in hard copy, but may be available on the website.
• The full URL of the web page with the judgment should NOT be provided. Instead, reference should be made only to http://www.icj-cij.org.

In such cases, the following format should be used:

<Case Name> (<Parties’ Names>) (<Phase>) [<Year>] ICJ [<Paragraph pinpoint>] <URL> at <Full date> (‘<Abbreviated Case Name>’).

• Dissenting judgments reach a conclusion that is different to that of the Court or any separate opinions (see below for an explanation of separate opinions)
• Where there are numerous dissenting judgments, all are to be cited in one footnote.
• There is no need to repeat the citation (or internet address).

The following format should be used:

<Case Name> <(Parties’ Names)> <(Phase)> [Year] ICJ Rep <Starting page>, <Pinpoint> (Dissenting Opinion of Judge <Name>); <Pinpoint> (Dissenting Opinion of Judge <Name>).

• Separate judgments are different to dissenting judgments
• Separate judgments have the same outcome as the decision of the Court, and the judge who wrote it still subscribes to the decision of the Court
• They are written, for example, where a judge wishes to emphasise something different, or something in particular

Separate judgments should be cited in the following way:

<Case Name> <(Parties' Names)> <(Phase)> [Year] ICJ Rep <Starting page>, <Pinpoint> (Separate Opinion of Judge <Name>).

• When citing an advisory opinion, the phrase ‘(Advisory Opinion)’ should be placed where the phase would normally be, immediately after the case name and in place of the parties' names.

Rule

ICJ, Rules of Court art <no> (adopted <full date>).

Example

ICJ, Rules of Court art 80(1) (adopted 14 April 1978).