paragraph 195 in volume 2, chapter 12, The Compulsory Jurisdiction (Optional Clause)
As seen, the intention is to confine the compulsory jurisdiction to legal, or justiciable, disputes. The expression ‘legal disputes’ (différends d’ ordre juridique) appears also in Article 36, paragraph 3, of the Charter, but nowhere is any meaning given to it in the Charter or the Statute (unlike Article 13, paragraph 2, of the Covenant of the League of Nations). It presupposes the existence of a ‘dispute’ in accordance with the general concept of ‘dispute’ applied by the Court1 and…