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World Court Digest

III. The International Court of Justice
1. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
1.1. General Questions

¤ Passage through the Great Belt
(Finland / Denmark),
Provisional Measures,
Order of 29 July 1991,
I.C.J. Reports 1991, p. 12

[p. 20] 35. Whereas, as the Permanent Court of International Justice observed, and the present Court has reiterated,

"the judicial settlement of international disputes, with a view to which the Court has been established, is simply an alternative to the direct and friendly settlement of such disputes between the Parties; as consequently it is for the Court to facilitate, so far as is compatible with its Statute, such direct and friendly settlement..." (Free Zones of Upper Savoy and the District of Gex, P.C.I.J., Series A, No. 22, p. 13; see also Frontier Dispute, I.C.J. Reports 1986, p. 577, para. 46);

whereas, pending a decision of the Court on the merits, any negotiation between the Parties with a view to achieving a direct and friendly settlement is to be welcomed;