The International Court of Justice bom opened and closed the year 2000 with an unprecedented docket of twenty-four cases; during the year, one case was concluded by ajudgment, and a new one was filed.1 Most of the Court's cases, however, were still in “midstream,” with the parties still exchanging written pleadings. The Court held oral proceedings during 2000 in just five cases: final hearings on the merits in two, hearings on jurisdiction leading to ajudgment in a third, and two requests for provisional measures, one granted and the other not. The year was marked by other events of interest, including some that signal important changes in the Court's procedures.

In May 2001, at a diplomatic conference in Stockholm, Sweden, the international community adopted and opened for signature the new Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (Stockholm Convention). Over ninety nations signed the convention at the conference, and one country—Canada—ratified it. The Stockholm Convention is designed to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants (POPs)—chemical substances that are persistent and toxic, that bioaccumulate in fatty tissue (achieving higher concentrations as they move up a particular food chain), and that are prone to long-range environmental transport. Among other things, the convention contains obligations to eliminate or severely restrict the production and use of a number of POP pesticides and industrial chemicals, to take strong measures to prevent or control the release of certain POPs that are formed as by-products of various combustion activities, and to ensure the safe and proper disposal or destruction of such substances when they become wastes.