World Court Digest

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III.	The International Court of Justice
2.	THE JURISDICTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
2.2.	Conditions for a Decision on the Merits
2.2.5.	Simultaneous seizing of the Court and the Security Council Review of Security Council resolutions

¤ Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo
(Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda),
Request for the Indication of Provisional Measures,
Order of 1 July 2000

[p. ] 35. Whereas, in its request for the indication of provisional measures, the Congo refers to resolution 1304 (2000), adopted by the United Nations Security Council on 16 June 2000; whereas that resolution was adopted by the Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations;

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36. Whereas the Court notes Uganda's argument that the Congo's request for the indication of provisional measures concerns essentially the same issues as this resolution, that the said request is accordingly inadmissible, and that the request is, moreover, moot, since Uganda fully accepts the resolution in question and is complying with it; whereas Security Council resolution 1304 (2000), and the measures taken in its implementation, do not preclude the Court from acting in accordance with its Statute and with the Rules of Court; whereas in particular, as the Court has already had occasion to observe,

"while there is in the Charter

'a provision for a clear demarcation of functions between the General Assembly and the Security Council, in respect of any dispute or situation, that the former should not make any recommendation with regard to that dispute or situation unless the Security Council so requires, there is no similar provision anywhere in the Charter with respect to the Security Council and the Court. The Council has functions of a political nature assigned to it, whereas the Court exercises purely judicial functions. Both organs can therefore perform their separate but complementary functions with respect to the same events' (Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America), Jurisdiction and Admissibility, Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1984,

pp. 434-435, para. 95);" (Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Provisional Measures, Order of 8 April 1993, I.C.J. Reports 1993, p. 19, para. 33);

and whereas in the present case the Security Council has taken no decision which would prima facie preclude the rights claimed by the Congo from "be[ing] regarded as appropriate for protection by the indication of provisional measures" (Questions of Interpretation and Application of the 1971 Montreal Convention arising from the Aerial Incident at Lockerbie (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya v. United Kingdom), Provisional Measures, Order of 14 April 1992, p. 15, para. 40);

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