The chapter deals with the ICJ and human rights. It argues that, while the Court is not and will never be a specialised human rights court, it has a significant role in the protection and development of human rights. The author explains some structural obstacles and impediments to the engagement of the Court with human rights, and then offers some instances of substantial incorporation of human rights into the fabric of general international law through interpretation and legal concepts encompassing international community interests. The chapter suggests that structural disengagement in the sense of norms allowing only States to litigate before the Court does not impede substantial incorporation which may depend on other factors, including the changing attitudes of the ICJ judges and lawyers before the Court.

The International Court of Justice held its first sitting on 18 April 1946 and heard its first two cases in 1948: it heard preliminary objections in The Corfu Channel Case from late February to early March, and it held hearings in the advisory opinion on Conditions of Admission of a State to Membership in the United Nations (Article 4 of the Charter) in late April. Those first two cases were emblematic of the kinds of disputes that the Court would eventually hear and resolve as part of its ordinary caseload: they both dealt with practical issues, with significant political implications, and were an opportunity for the Court to provide guidance to the broader international community on disputed issues of international law. They provided the Court with scope to fulfil its mandate as the principal judicial organ of the United Nations; to function as a prominent interpreter of international law, as it is used and applied in practice. As international law has become more present in global policy-making and in academic and journalistic commentary, the International Court has come to occupy an essential and increasingly visible role in international relations, and has exercised jurisdiction over a significant number of international disputes addressing the same matters as are being wrestled with in the halls of the United Nations, and in ministries of foreign affairs across the world, and are being discussed as leading stories in international newspapers.