I. CONSTITUTION AND JURISDICTION Judges.—The court consists of 11 judges and four deputy judges, who are elected for terms of nine years and may be re-elected. The seat of the court is at The Hague. It holds regular annual sessions, and, unless otherwise provided by rules of the court, the regular session begins on June 15 of each year and continues as long as may be deemed necessary to finish the cases on the list. It elects its own president and vice-president, appoints its own registrar and makes its own rules regulating procedure. The president and registrar are required to reside at the seat of the court. If at any time the full number of 11 judges cannot be present, the deputy judges are called upon to make up the number; nine judges being necessary to make a quorum. The statute requires that the members of the court shall be a body of inde pendent judges elected regardless of their nationality from amongst persons of high moral character who possess the quali fications required in their respective countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices, or are jurisconsults of recognized competence in international law.
Not more than one national of any state at one time may be member of the court. The members receive regular salaries and are not permitted to exercise any political or administrative func tion, or to act as agent, counsel or advocate in any case of an international nature. Every member is required, before taking up his duties, to make a solemn declaration in open court that he will exercise his powers impartially and conscientiously.
comprises all cases which the parties refer to it and all matters specially provided for in treaties and conventions in force.
There was much discussion whether this jurisdiction should be made generally compulsory, so that whenever one party to any international controversy wished to bring the case into court, the other party would be bound to submit to the jurisdiction. Many states being unwilling to subject themselves to so comprehensive an obligation, the question was disposed of by including in the protocol and statute an optional clause, which the several states were at liberty to sign or refrain from signing, and under which the states signing recognized as compulsory, in relation to each other, the jurisdiction of the court in legal disputes concerning (a) the interpretation of a treaty, (b) any question of inter national law, (c) the existence of any fact which, if established, would constitute a breach of an international obligation, (d) the nature or extent of the reparation to be made for the breach of an international obligation. At the close of the year 1927, this optional clause had been signed by 27 states. France and Germany were the only great powers included in this list. Since the court began its work, its jurisdiction under the head of "matters specially provided for in treaties and conventions" has been en larged by many new treaties and conventions providing that dis putes between the parties shall be submitted to the court Procedure and Practice.—The statute requires the court to apply in its decisions (I) international conventions, whether gen eral or particular, establishing rules expressly recognized by the contesting states; (2) international custom as evidence of a general practice accepted as law; (3) the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations; (4) judicial decisions and the teaching of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations, not as binding, but as subsidiary means for the determina tion of rules of law.