International Court of Justice settles 0ne hundredth case

THE HAGUE – The International Court of Justice at the Peace Palace in The Hague has recently rendered its one hundredth decision in an international dispute. Neighbouring countries Romania and Ukraine both claimed 12,000 square kilometers in the Black Sea, an area thought to hold significant reserves of oil and natural gas. After arguing over jurisdictional rights, they submitted the case to the ICJ in 2004. The judgment of the UN’s high court clarified the issue, and was agreed to by both countries. The ICJ was founded in 1945 and is the first of the international courts and tribunals which now call The Hague their home. International law has a long tradition in the Netherlands, many crediting jurist, philosopher, Christian apologist, playwright and poet Hugo Grotius (1583-1645, also known as Huig de Groot) as being a trailblazer with his advocacy of free seas. Long before the court came into being, King William I of the Netherlands settled an international claim, the border line between the Canadian border along New Brunswick with Maine, U.S.A. England and the U.S.A. appointed the king as their arbiter, who set in 1831 the current border line. In 1948, the ICJ settled its first claim, the Corfu Channel Case (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland v. People's Republic of Albania).