6 Law-Making by International Courts and Tribunals

The proliferation of international courts and tribunals is one aspect of the development of specialist international regimes and the apparent fragmentation of the international legal system discussed in earlier chapters. Although the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the ‘principal judicial organ’ of the United Nations, and all UN members are ipso facto parties to the Statute of the Court,1 the ICJ does not have automatic compulsory jurisdiction over all international legal disputes, it is not a court of appeal from other international tribunals, nor do its...