What is International Court of Justice?
{{Distinguish|text=the [[International Criminal Court]]}} [[File:International Court of Justice Seal.svg|thumb|border|[[Emblem]] of the '''International Court of Justice''']] The '''International Court of Justice''' [<nowiki/>[[French language|French]]: La '''Cour internationale de justice''' ('''CIJ''')], is an international organization. It is the main judicial organ or branch of the [[United Nations]]. In short, International Court of Justice is '''ICJ'''; sometimes people call it the '''World Court'''. In French language, it is ''Cour internationale de justice''. Established ICJ in 1945, ICJ has its headquarters at [[The Hague]], [[Netherlands]]. The ICJ began its working from 1946. It replaced an earlier similar court named [[Permanent Court of International Justice]]. The International Court of Justice is different from the [[International Criminal Court]]. The ICJ uses two languages, the English language and the French language. The International Court of Justice has two major functions. Firstly, it settles disputes, which the member countries may bring before it. Secondly, it may give its opinions on legal matters. Since 1980s, many developing countries have been using the services of the ICJ. But, in 1986, the [[United States|United States of America]] did not accept the court’s views on all matters, but rather selectively, on a case-to-case basis. Since the year 2000 the docket went down from 23 to 12 cases. In the meantime the staff tripled. == Structure == The ICJ has fifteen permanent judges. The UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council elects the judges. A judge serves for a nine-year period and may be re-elected if necessary. If a serving judge dies, another judge, from the same country he or she belonged to is generally elected to fill the vacant position. Elections are staggered, thus five judges (one-third of the Court) come up for election every three years. The fifteen permanent judges are elected from a list of persons nominated by the national groups in the [[Permanent Court of Arb