THAILAND

MODEL UNITED NATIONS - THAIMUN

The International Court of

Justice
An introduction

THIAMUN

INTRODUCTION
The International Court of Justice is an instrument of the United Nations, whose
functions take place in The Hague. It is a court whose differences with the regular national
courts of every country are very substantial and should be taken into account.

First off, the International Court of Justice is an international court, which essentially
means that it does not belong or function under the constitutions of every stat separately but
rather under internationally recognized regulations UN conventions, protocols, treaties which
have all been signed and ratified by the vast majority of the United Nations. The ICJ is called
upon to settle disputes between countries and not the individual. Hence, all verdicts that are
written by the Judges in the ICJ are to maintain legal grounds.

THE ROLE OF THE ADVOCATES
The role of the advocates is a very demanding one and needs a lot of preparation
beforehand. During the trial they must be able to support their arguments through evidence,
they will have gathered before the trial.

Each party has to provide a memorandum and their stipulations before the trial. The
content of these documents are discussed below at the ICJ Terms section. It is important that
each party provides their memoranda and their stipulations, along with their witness list before
the trial and do not leave it to the last day.

Applicant Party
The Applicant Partys goal is, as stated before, to CONVINCE the Court of their
accusations towards the Respondent Party. The Applicant Party has the burden of proof, which
means while the judges are deliberating the evidence must convince over 51% of the judges.
The applicant party should be clear and concise on what they want. They should be specific and
ask for something.

Respondent Party
The goal of the Respondent Party is to make the judges question whether that the
accusations are right or wrong. The main playing card of the advocates is not to question
every single piece of evidence presented by the Applicant Party but to present by themselves
evidence which argue specifically how the arguments of the opposite Party could not be valid.
Since in the Court it is not a matter of who will be the winner of the case but whether the
Respondent Party should be granted the accusations, the advocated should be focusing on how
to create doubts concerning this matter. This means that a valid tactic for the respondent side
is to throw in every piece of evidence they have found during their researches.

HOW THE COURT FUNCTIONS
As stated before, the Stipulations and the Memorandums are being handed into the
judges before the trial. The procedure is as follows:

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First the parties will give their opening speeches. Usually these opening speeches are 30
minutes long and usually best if only one of the advocates for each party give it. The first party
to give the opening speech is the applicant. The respondent party is allowed to give its opening
speech after the applicant has rested its case i.e. presented their evidences. This is entirely up
to them.

Following their opening speeches, the parties are then required to present their
evidences. There shouldnt be more than 15 pieces of evidence per party. The evidences are
moved. In order to move an evidence it is required that the evidence moved is approved by the
opposite party, which means that if the applicant is moving an evidence, the respondent has to
have read it and approved it. It is better if it is done before the trial. The evidence moved by the
applicant will be marked with numbers and those moved by the respondent will be marked
with capital letters. After the hard-evidences are moved by each party, the judges will
deliberate upon the evidences. During this, the advocates will be dismissed from the Court.
However, they can be called back to the Court any time during deliberation to be questioned.

After evidences are moved and deliberated upon, the time will come for the witnesses
to give out their testimonies. First the applicant will call upon its witnesses and then the
respondent. The normal amount of witnesses to be called upon is usually three per party.

Each witness will be first examined by the party that call upon them and then cross-
examined by the opposite party. The party that has called upon the witness cannot ask leading
questions. A leading question is a question that contains the answer within, much like a well-
structured point of information. For example Isnt it true that Country X has done so and so
and so? is a leading question. While it is true that the party that has called upon the witness
cannot ask leading questions, the opposite party has the right to ask leading questions, and
should do so. However, hearsay questions cannot be asked by any party. A hearsay question is
a question that relies on what the witness might have heard. For example: Honourable
ambassador of X isnt it true that the president of country Y has said this? is a hearsay
question.

After the advocates are done with a witness, the judges then have a right to ask factual
questions to the witnesses. However, these questions cannot be about anything but the
witness has already said. The judges cannot bring a new aspect to the information brought in by
what the witness has already said. Then, the advocates will have 30 or so minutes for rebuttal.
During this period, the advocates are expected to counter the claims of each other. New
evidence may be moved during rebuttal, but only if it is really important to the course of the
case.
After the rebuttal, the advocates will give their closing speeches. The closing speech,
unlike the opening speech, can be divided upon the parties. For example the applicant party
might choose to make its speech in two parts. It would speak for 15 minutes, and then leave
the floor to the respondent, which will make its speech for 30 minutes, and then the applicant
can take the floor back to close and wrap-up what they want to say in 15 minutes. Or they
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could just do 30 minutes each. Its up to the applicant. However, what both parties should do is
to ask from the Court to reach upon a judgment.

The advocates will then leave for good, but may be called back for additional
questioning. During deliberation the judges will talk about issues raised up by the parties. These
issues will be listed and be talked upon separately. After they all have been discussed they will
write a verdict. Remember, there is no winner or loser in the ICJ. The writing of the verdict may
take a really long time.

THE TERMS OF ICJ

i) STIPULATIONS
The document named stipulations is a list of predetermined facts. This means that both
parties will have discussed and agreed upon the contents of these facts. During the trial these
facts will be considered as unchangeable and advocates will not have a chance to object to
them.
ii) PLEADINGS
The case is being introduced to the Court through the pleadings. The pleadings are documents
that are not considered evidence, are in general short speeches concerning the case from each
sides point of view and each speech should last approximately 10 minutes. It is common
knowledge that the first word belongs to the Applicant Party.
iii) MEMORANDUM
The memorandum is a document, supplied to the judges before the trial, which contains
information on the case as told by either party. These facts could be the historical background
of the issue, the specific treaties that provide the legal basis of the base and judgment
requested from the Court. Both parties are required to supply a Judgment Requested part.
iv) REAL EVIDENCE
The Court recognises as real evidence only real documents with facts presented by both parties,
The Applicant Party presents first the evidence and then the Respondent Party. Afterwards, it
follows a deliberation between the judges without the advocates and then the questioning of
the advocates by the judges. These evidences could be: treaties, news articles (from respected
news providers), scientific articles etc.
v) TESTIMONY
Another form of evidence is the testimony of the witnesses. It is common that each party calls
upon three witnesses, who are the Ambassadors and mostly (but not necessarily) represent
each partys country and two more that are involved in the case. Every party has the chance to
question the witnesses. There is also the chance of cross-examination by the opposite party.
Afterwards the judges can question the witnesses, but must stick to what it was stated by them
during the examination by the advocates.
vi) REBUTTAL
The Rebuttal is a procedure of presenting the final pieces of evidence by both parties. Through
the trial, the advocates will have the chance to see where they lack enough evidence in order to
convince the judges. The rebuttal is, therefore, a last chance for both parties to present their
final arguments.
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vii) CLOSING SPEECHES

The closing speeches should last approximately 2 5 minutes and mainly contain a summary of
the case, the trial and the final arguments of each party.
viii) VERDICT
The verdict is the document that contains the final decision of the Court. It should summarize
the case and the trial and hereby detailing the 3 day procedure.
ix) EVIDENCE AND PROOF
It is common that the terms evidence and proof are being easily confused.
a) EVIDENCE
Evidence is the material form that proves something. For example: a gun in the crimes scene IS
evidence. Evidence could also be in form of a document (essay, article), media (cassette,
recorded CD) or could be oral (testimony).
b) PROOF
Proof, first of all, is NOT evidence. Proof is what happens in the judges minds. The proof is a
procedure, which is a result of the running of the trial and the presentation of evidence and
leads to the fact that the judges are convinced of the weight of the accusations. Therefore, it is
the Applicants Party obligation to CONVINCE the Court that the accusations are valid.