World Court Digest

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III.	The International Court of Justice
1.	FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
1.2.	Consent of States

¤ Oil Platforms
(Islamic Republic of Iran v.
United States of America)
Preliminary Objections
Judgment of 12 December 1996,
I.C.J. Reports 1996, p. 803

[p. 897 D.O. Oda] 18. In view of the basic principle of international justice that referral to the Court should be based upon the consent of sovereign States, neither one of the States to a bilateral treaty could be presumed to have agreed (and certainly, in fact, never has agreed) to let the other State refer unilaterally to the Court a dispute touching upon the object and purpose of the treaty, as, without a mutual understanding on those matters, the treaty itself would not have been concluded. The difference of views of the two States relating to the scope - the object and purpose - of a treaty cannot be the subject of an adjudication by the Court unless both States have given their consent; such a dispute may, however, be brought to the Court by a special agreement or, alternatively, there may be an occasion for the application of the rule of forum prorogatum. This is, then, quite different from the case of the "interpretation or application" of the individual provisions of the treaty on which the two States may, if the need arises, argue under the compromissory clause of that treaty from opposite stances before the Court.

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