I wish to congratulate the organizers on this gathering of international lawyers that ranges over such a wide spectrum of themes and topics as does this ambitious program sponsored by the American Society of International Law and the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Internationaal Recht. The emphasis is on change: new forms, new applications, how we adapt with dynamism and flexibility to meet the challenges that face us in our respective institutions. It makes for a thought-provoking background against which I offer you a few words about the International Court of Justice.

Among the subjects for discussion tomorrow will be “New institutional forms of international dispute settlement” and “New procedures of international dispute resolution.” The World Court is one of the oldest-established fora for international dispute resolution, and one with a distinguished 75-year record. But I would also invite you to look at the International Court of Justice from the standpoint of its ability to accommodate a wide range of inter-State disputes efficiently within its existing procedural structures, and from the standpoint as well of its capacity for flexibility.

Most of you are aware of the dramatic increase in the Court's case-load the last dozen years – latterly a period, I should add, of severe financial constraints imposed by the General Assembly – so I will not detail the docket of cases before us.