paragraph 174 in volume 2, chapter 11, Treaties and Conventions in Force
Article 36 of the Statute sets out the rules governing the Court’s jurisdiction ratione materiae, sometimes called its subject matter jurisdiction. Paragraph 1 of this Article states the fundamental principle of international law: ‘The jurisdiction of the Court comprises all cases which the parties refer to it’. It is subject to the prior condition that the ‘parties’ meet the conditions governing access to the Court as discussed in …