Practice Direction I

            The Court wishes to discourage the practice of simultaneous deposit of pleadings in cases brought by Special Agreement.

            The Court would expect future special agreements to contain provisions as to the number and order of pleadings, in accordance with Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Rules of Court.  Such provisions shall be without prejudice to any issue in the case, including the issue of burden of proof.

            If the Special Agreement contains no provisions on the number and order of pleadings, the Court will expect the parties to reach agreement to that effect, in accordance with Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Rules of Court.

Practice Direction II

            Each of the parties is, in drawing up its written pleadings, to bear in mind the fact that these pleadings are intended not only to reply to the submissions and arguments of the other party, but also, and above all, to present clearly the submissions and arguments of the party which is filing the proceedings. 

            In the light of this, at the conclusion of the written pleadings of each party, there is to appear a short summary of its reasoning.

Practice Direction III

            The Court has noticed an excessive tendency towards the proliferation and protraction of annexes to written pleadings.  It strongly urges parties to append to their pleadings only strictly selected documents.

Practice Direction IV

            Where one of the parties has a full or partial translation of its own pleadings or of those of the other party in the other official language of the Court, these translations should as a matter of course be passed to the Registry of the Court.  The same applies to the annexes.

            These translations will be examined by the Registry and communicated to the other party. The latter will also be informed of the manner in which they were prepared.

Practice Direction V

(as amended on 30 July 2004)

            With the aim of accelerating proceedings on preliminary objections made by one party under Article 79, paragraph 1, of the Rules of Court, the time‑limit for the presentation by the other party of a written statement of its observations and submissions under Article 79, paragraph 5, shall generally not exceed four months from the date of the filing of the preliminary objections.

Practice Direction VI

            Article 60, paragraph 1, of the Rules provides:

   “The oral statements made on behalf of each party shall be as succinct as possible within the limits of what is requisite for the adequate presentation of that party’s contentions at the hearing.  Accordingly, they shall be directed to the issues that still divide the parties, and shall not go over the whole ground covered by the pleadings, or merely repeat the facts and arguments these contain.”

            The Court requires full compliance with these provisions and observation of the requisite degree of brevity.  Where objections of lack of jurisdiction or of inadmissibility are being considered, oral proceedings are to be limited to statements on the objections.

Practice Direction VII (*)

            The Court considers that it is not in the interest of the sound administration of justice that a person sit as judge ad hoc in one case who is also acting or has recently acted as agent, counsel or advocate in another case before the Court.  Accordingly, parties, when choosing a judge ad hoc pursuant to Article 31 of the Statute and Article 35 of the Rules of Court, should refrain from nominating persons who are acting as agent, counsel or advocate in another case before the Court or have acted in that capacity in the three years preceding the date of the nomination.  Furthermore, parties should likewise refrain from designating as agent, counsel or advocate in a case before the Court a person who sits as judge ad hoc in another case before the Court.

Practice Direction VIII (*)

            The Court considers that it is not in the interest of the sound administration of justice that a person who until recently was a Member of the Court, judge ad hoc, Registrar, Deputy‑Registrar or higher official of the Court (principal legal secretary, first secretary or secretary), appear as agent, counsel or advocate in a case before the Court.  Accordingly, parties should refrain from designating as agent, counsel or advocate in a case before the Court a person who in the three years preceding the date of the designation was a Member of the Court, judge ad hoc, Registrar, Deputy‑Registrar or higher official of the Court.

Practice Direction IX

            1. The parties to proceedings before the Court should refrain from submitting new documents after the closure of the written proceedings.

            2. A party nevertheless desiring to submit a new document after the closure of the written proceedings shall explain why it considers it necessary to include the document in the case file and shall indicate the reasons preventing the production of the document at an earlier stage.

            3. In the absence of consent of the other party, the Court will authorize the production of the new document only in exceptional circumstances, if it considers it necessary and if the production of the document at this stage of the proceedings appears justified to the Court.

            4. If a new document has been added to the case file under Article 56 of the Rules of Court, the other party, when commenting upon it, shall confine the introduction of any further documents to what is strictly necessary and relevant to its comments on what is contained in this new document.

Practice Direction X

            Whenever a decision on a procedural issue needs to be made in a case and the President deems it necessary to call a meeting of the Agents to ascertain the views of the parties in this regard pursuant to Article 31 of the Rules of Court, Agents are expected to attend that meeting as early as possible.

Practice Direction XI

            The Court has noticed the increasing tendency of parties to request the indication of provisional measures.  Parties should in their oral pleadings thereon limit themselves to what is relevant to the criteria for the indication of provisional measures as indicated in the Statute, Rules and jurisprudence of the Court.  They should not enter into the merits of the case beyond what is strictly necessary for that purpose.

Practice Direction XII

1.    Where an international non‑governmental organization submits a written statement and/or document in an advisory opinion case on its own initiative, such statement and/or document is not to be considered as part of the case file.

2.    Such statements and/or documents shall be treated as publications readily available and may accordingly be referred to by States and intergovernmental organizations presenting written and oral statements in the case in the same manner as publications in the public domain.

3.    Written statements and/or documents submitted by international non‑governmental organizations will be placed in a designated location in the Peace Palace.  All States as well as intergovernmental organizations presenting written or oral statements under Article 66 of the Statute will be informed as to the location where statements and/or documents submitted by international non‑governmental organizations may be consulted.

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 (*) Practice Directions VII and VIII do not affect a choice or designation made by the Parties prior to 7 February 2002, the date of the adoption by the Court of those Directions.